Illegal Ivory Trade shrinks while Pangolin trafficking booms
VIENNA – The illegal global trade in ivory has shrunk while the trafficking of pangolins has soared, a UN report on wildlife crime based on four years’ data said on Friday.
National bans on selling ivory, particularly China’s in 2017, appear to have helped further erode ivory trafficking after it peaked around 2011-2013, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said in its World Wildlife Crime Report, which was last published in 2016.
At the same time, the trafficking of pangolins – a reclusive, nocturnal mammal covered in scales that are used in traditional Chinese medicine, has surged, the UNODC said.
“The World Wildlife Crime Report 2020 has some good news and some bad news,” UNODC research chief Angela Me told Reuters.
“We see some shrinking in some markets, particularly the ivory and the rhino (horn) market, but we actually see huge increases in other markets, like the market of illicit trafficking of pangolins, in European eels but also in tiger parts and also in rosewood,” she added.