The effort to save one of Africa’s most trafficked animals, the pangolin, received a boost after the dramatic arrest of six traffickers with over 700 kilogrammes of pangolin scales, in an operation conducted by law enforcers across six African countries in a coordinated operation.

The pangolin scales were being transported across remote borders in an attempt to avoid increased law enforcement; from the Democratic Republic Congo, through the Central African Republic, Cameroon into Nigeria.

“One of the traffickers sent a truck with pangolin scales from Bangui, which arrived in Douala shortly after he had flown to the port city. The contraband was then driven in two cars to a neighbourhood in the town, where an illegal transaction was about to take place, but all six traffickers were arrested in a police operation,” reads a statement issued by Eagle Network, a wildlife conservation organisation, that helped investigate the illegal trade and assisted the arrest operation.

Uganda Wildlife Authority says increased surveillance at its major airport could have resulted in traffickers using the forest routes in DR Congo, Central African Republic and to West Africa.

Uganda is one of the common transit points for trafficking of wildlife and wildlife products in the East and Central Africa region.

Criminal networks and organisations in Uganda and the region mainly smuggle ivory, but have in recent years been linked to pangolin and pangolin scales trafficking.

Vicious traffickers

Smuggling routes exist between Uganda and its neighbours Tanzania, Kenya, South Sudan, the DRC, and the Central African Republic.

The main destination for wildlife products from the Great Lakes region is Asia, especially China and Vietnam.

John Makombo, the conservation director of the Uganda Wildlife Authority, said the Uganda government has implemented several measures to curb trafficking of wildlife and wildlife products through its borders and airport.

“We have increased manpower at Entebbe International Airport and have an intelligence and investigation unit in place, the Sniffer Dog Unit at the airport. We are also working with international partners such as WildAid,” Mr Makombo said.

President Yoweri Museveni last month oversaw a pass-out parade of over 400 game rangers trained in intelligence and investigations of wildlife crime.

The rangers will be deployed inside national game parks and at border points.

Punishment

The president also told delegates at the illegal wildlife trade conference in London last week that in addition to strengthening the international airport, “In the Wildlife Bill now before Parliament, the government is proposing a life sentence penalty for poaching and trafficking in endangered species for commercial purposes.”

Pangolins in Uganda have been traditionally protected as a totem among certain tribes but they are also hunted for bush meat and traditional medicine.

However, there is growing evidence of an international trade with Asia as the main destination.

Reports from the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, a trade database and recent seizure data from local non-governmental organisations and Uganda Wildlife Authority, show an increasing demand for pangolin scales.

There have been 20 seizures of pangolins scales from 2012 to 2016 in Uganda. In 2015, 2,000kg of pangolin scales were seized at Entebbe International Airport together with 700kg of ivory destined for Amsterdam.

Vincent Opyene, the director of the Natural Resources Conservation Network, notes that with arrests and prosecution of notorious traffickers of pangolin scales and sensitisation of the population, Uganda is beginning to register gains in the fight against illegal trading of pangolin scales and other wildlife products.

“The trade at a very high commercial level has gone down, but at the lower level it is still very much alive. People were not sensitive about the illegality of this trade,” said Mr Opyene.

Ugandans, he said, started killing pangolins because of the demand created by a trader in pangolin scales called Smith Ewa Maku, but “following the expiry of his licence, the trade has gone down.

The illegal trade in pangolin scales in Uganda seems to have peaked in 2015, with 2,214kg of pangolin scales seized from 72.4kg in 2014.

Surveillance

The decline, players say is a result of increased surveillance but again, the traffickers have changed to less known routes and become more vicious.

Mr Makombo agrees with Mr Opyene that pangolin trafficking is declining at commercial level.

Both, however, cannot rule out the possibility that due to its porous borders the link between Ugandan poachers and regional and international syndicates could be thriving unnoticed.

“The Uganda Wildlife Authority has raided ‘spurious’ facilities and found pangolins, and successfully released them back into the wild.

“However, we are acutely aware that some Chinese groups are continuing to seek relationships to circumvent Ugandan and international law,” said Michael Keigwin, founder of the Uganda Conservation Foundation.