Pangolins Are Now Protected in China скачать в хорошем качестве

Pangolins Are Now Protected in China

Activists in China have released a pangolin into the wild to celebrate new protections for the armadillo-like animal whose numbers in the country have dropped to near extinction levels. The increased protection means that pangolin scales can no longer be used legally in the traditional Chinese medicine industry. This rescued pangolin is taking its first steps of freedom. With a little help to open the transport crate, it's not long before this foot-long scaly pangolin crawls onto the lush forest floor outside Zhejiang's Jinhua city. It's brown scales and pink paws quickly disappear in the bushes. China ordered on June 5 its highest level of protection for the armadillo-like pangolin as part of its crackdown on the wildlife trade following the global coronavirus pandemic. "In China, we have spent over five years, travelled all over China, every single province, every single traditional habitat. For the last five years, we've only found together with all people in china we have only found about 20 Chinese pangolins. Which you know in one Hunan province, in one province 30 years ago, there (was) 200,000 pangolins," says Dr Jinfeng Zhou, secretary-general of the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Fund, the group behind the lone pangolin's release. Just last year in Zhejiang, authorities arrested 18 smugglers and confiscated 23.1 tons of pangolin scales sourced from an estimated 50,000 creatures, according to Chinese state media. The US-based group Save Pangolins said China's granting of top-level protected status earlier this month was "a massive win for pangolins" after years of weak enforcement of existing restrictions. Pangolin scales are an ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine and its meat is considered a delicacy by some. Environmental groups say that poachers had regularly circumvented the original regulations to sell illegally hunted pangolin scales and meat, often sourced from Africa and Southeast Asia. That has made pangolins "one of the most illegally traded mammals on the planet" with an estimated 1 million sold in the past 15 years, according to the Environmental Investigations Agency. Seizures have been recorded from Belgium to Singapore to Australia and the Philippines. Zhou says the new protections give groups like his the right to sue businesses and individuals selling pangolin scales. "We will watch out, we will sue all, anybody who issues permits, we will sue them, we will sue all the companies, business, hospitals, wherever they use pangolin scales, that will cut down the demands. So we believe starting this moment, the confiscated number will drop for the first time over the years," says Zhou. The move has been seen as part of China's crackdown on the wildlife trade following the global coronavirus pandemic. While the virus is believed to have originated in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, most scientists say it was most likely transmitted from bats to humans via an intermediary animal such as the pangolin. The order on June 5 from the National Forestry and Grassland Administration does not explicitly mention the virus outbreak as a reason for the measure, but the timing appears to indicate that was a consideration. Trade-in wildlife including bats and pangolins has been linked to so-called zoonotic diseases that leap from animals to humans, and China quickly cracked down on the industry in a series of measures long-promoted by environmental groups. However, Zhou wants to go a step further by releasing into the wild all captive pangolins in China and burning all confiscated pangolin scales, similar to how Kenya incinerated seized elephant tusks in a bid to end the illegal trade that continues to this day. "There is no more time. We must act. This is a good start, but this is not good enough. We want to burn all stocks of confiscated scales must openly burn. That's my next request and I'll make it happen."Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2TwO8Gm QUICKTAKE ON SOCIAL: Follow QuickTake on Twitter: twitter.com/quicktake Like QuickTake on Facebook: facebook.com/quicktake Follow QuickTake on Instagram: instagram.com/quicktake Subscribe to our newsletter: https://bit.ly/2FJ0oQZ Email us at quicktakenews@gmail.com QuickTake by Bloomberg is a global news network delivering up-to-the-minute analysis on the biggest news, trends and ideas for a new generation of leaders.