Journal of Threatened Taxa |
www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 May 2020 | 12(8): 15776–15783
ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893
(Print)
doi: https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.5698.12.8.15776-15783
#5698 | Received 12 January 2020 | Final
received 01 May 2020 | Finally accepted 06 May 2020
Species in peril: assessing the
status of the trade in pangolins in Nepal
Prayash Ghimire 1, Nirjala Raut 2, Pragya Khanal
3, Suman Acharya 4 & Suraj Upadhaya
5
1 Faculty of Forestry, Agriculture
and Forestry University, Hetauda, 44107, Nepal.
2,3 Institute of Forestry, Tribhuvan
University, Pokhara, 33700, Nepal.
4 Department of Anthropology,
University of Maine, Orono, ME, 04469, USA.
5 Department of Natural Resource
Ecology and Management, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, 50011, USA,
4,5 Himalayan Conservation and
Research Institute, Dolpa, Nepal.
1 prayash.pg@gmail.com
(corresponding author), 2 rnirjala@gmail.com, 3 prajnakhanal@gmail.com,
4 suman.acharya@maine.edu, 5 surajupadhaya99@gmail.com
Abstract: Pangolins are among the most widely traded taxa in the
southeastern Asian illegal wildlife trade because of
which they are at great risk of extinction.
Yet, little is known of their trade status in Nepal. This research was carried out to unfold the
status of pangolin trade in Sankhuwasava District of
Nepal. We used mixed methods such as
semi-structured questionnaire (n=75) and, focus group discussion (n=4) and key
Informant Interview, (n=30) to assess the trade status. Seizure data (2009–2017) were gathered from
law enforcement agencies to predict major trade routes. The major threat perceived was hunting
especially by unemployed local youth and children. The majority of hunters were
opportunistic. Sankhuwasava
District has become both source and transit for the illegal pangolin trade
rather than for local use. The
involvement of non-timber forest product traders was high in the illegal trade
business, however, there seems a rapid decline in the seizure of pangolin in
the last two years, mainly because of the deployment of the Nepal army in the
Makalu Barun National Park, which had long served as
a major route to China. Thus, we
recommend continuation of strong border security. Our study calls for capacity building of
enforcement agencies for detailed investigation of seizure data. For sustainable conservation of pangolin and
its habitat we recommend sustained conservation awareness programs in addition
to alternative livelihood opportunity.
Furthermore, formation of community based anti-poaching units followed
by motivation, anti-poaching trainings, security assurance, and incentives for
worthy conservation outcomes in pangolin-rich communities might aid in
conservation.
Keywords: Chinese Pangolin, illegal
hunting, Indian Pangolin, Manis crassicaudata,
Manis pentadactyla, opportunistic hunting,
NTFP traders, Sankhuwasava District, transboundary.
Editor:
L.A.K. Singh, Bhubaneswar,
Odisha, India. Date
of publication: 26 May 2020 (online & print)
Citation: Ghimire, P., N. Raut, P. Khanal,
S. Acharya & S. Upadhaya (2020).
Species in peril: assessing the
status of the trade in pangolins in Nepal. Journal
of Threatened Taxa 12(8): 15776–15783. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.5698.12.8.15776-15783
Copyright:
© Ghimire et al. 2020.
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. JoTT allows
unrestricted use, reproduction, and distribution of this article in any medium
by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publication.
Funding: The research received no financial support.
Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.
Author details: Prayash Ghimire is MSc Forestry student at
Agriculture and Forestry University, Hetauda, Nepal.
He is a thriving researcher working for pangolin conservation in his home district
Sankhuwasava for last 3 years. He aspires to work on
different aspects of forestry like forest management, wildlife management and
social forestry. Ms. Nirjala
Raut is Assistant Professor at Institute of Forestry Pokhrara,
Nepal. She is teaching “Wildlife Conservation and Management” to Undergraduate
and Graduate students. She is also involved in research activities related to
wildlife and its habitat conservation in the Institute. She has guided many
researches related to Pangoin being main supervisor
of the students. Pragya Khanal is MSc Forestry student at Institute of
Forestry, Tribhuvan University, Pokhara, Nepal. She is an incipient researcher
aiming to gain expertise in the field of forestry and its linkage to livelihood
of indigenous people. Currently, she has been working on different wings of
forestry like climate change and social forestry. Suraj Upadhaya is a postdoctoral
research associate working at Iowa State University and research scholar at
Himalayan Conservation and Research Institute Nepal where his research focuses
on assessing the dynamic relationship between natural resources and people to
ensure the sustainability of natural resources in developed and developing
countries. Suman Acharya is
a PhD scholar in Anthropology and Environmental Policy, Department of
Anthropology, University of Maine, USA and a social science researcher at
Himalayan Conservation and Research Institute, Nepal. He has 7 years of
research experience in Pangolins. Currently, his research focuses on climate change
adaptation in rural indigenous communities of Nepal.
Author contribution:
PG—research design, data collection, data analysis and interpretation, drafting
of manuscript, critical review, and revisions at different stages. NR—conceptualization,
methodology design, write up, review draft and edit. PK—conception, data
analysis and interpretation, and drafting of manuscript. SU—conceptualization,
writing: draft preparation, reviewing,
editing. SA—conceptualization, writing, review, and editing the
draft manuscript at different stages.
Acknowledgements: We would like to express
our sincere gratitude to all the respondents and people who participated in our
survey and focus group discussions. Our
sincere thanks go to district forest officers, Makalu Barun
National Park staff, Nepal Police and Army officials of Sankhuwasawa
District for providing seizure data. We are indebted to Mr. Sashanka
Sharma for his guidance during the entire fieldwork. Last but not the least, we would like to
express profound gratitude to the three anonymous reviewers for greatly
improving the earlier version of this manuscript.
Illegal wildlife trade is one of the most crucial threats to
biodiversity conservation (Nijman & Shepherd 2011; Esmail
et al. 2019). Along with increased
threats to biodiversity conservation, illegal wildlife trade also impacts the
security of the community and their livelihood, living together with wildlife (Riskas et al. 2018).
Moreover, it has extended impacts on the governance and economy of the
nation (Felbab-Brown 2017).
With dramatic increase, illegal wildlife trade is ranked the fourth most
lucrative global crime after drugs, humans, and arms with the transaction
approximately between $7 billion and $23 billion each year (World Economic
Forum 2016). Moreover, the illegal
wildlife trade has risen to $23 billion annually, resulting from increase in environmental
crime (Nellemann et al. 2018). Illegal wildlife trade is a large business
run by well-coordinated and financially organized groups with international
linkages that include a network of traders, smugglers, and supporters (locals,
middleman, office staff, politicians, and international contacts) forming an
illicit network facilitating poaching (Katuwal et al.
2015; Upadhaya 2017).
Pangolin is an internationally heavily trafficked mammal, as a result
both Asian and African pangolins are highly threatened with extinction (Challender et al. 2014; Waterman et al. 2014; Boakye et al.
2015; IUCN SSC Pangolin Specialist Group 2016).
In the past few years pangolin trafficking and hunting for local use has
peaked up dramatically (Actman 2016; Aisher 2016; Challender et al.
2019; Ullmann et al. 2019). The rate and
trend of trafficking of African pangolins to Asia has increased in the last
decade (IUCN SSC Pangolin Specialist Group 2016; Challender
& Waterman 2017), so that the demand of Asia has been fulfilled by Africa (Challender & Waterman 2017). Pangolin is hunted, poached, and illegally
traded mainly due to increase in the demand for meat as a delicacy and for its
medicinal importance (Challender et al. 2015;
Mohapatra et al. 2015; Sharma et al. 2020).
The demand for pangolin is increasing because of the belief and use of
its scales in medicines (Challender et al. 2015;
CITES 2016). In some parts of the world,
like Pakistan, pangolins are killed due to wrongly-held beliefs, such as,
pangolins eat human dead bodies by excavating the graves and harm the local
people. These beliefs have encouraged
selling of pangolin, resulting in the biggest threat to pangolin population (Akrim et al. 2017).
People also consider pangolin as bush meat (Newton et al. 2008; Zhang et
al. 2017). In addition to these reasons,
poaching and illegal trade have severely threatened the pangolin population all
around the world (Newton et al. 2008; Katuwal et al.
2015; Mohapatra et al. 2015; Challender et al. 2019;
Sharma et al. 2020). As trafficking is a
major threat to pangolins in the international arena (Challender
et al. 2015, 2019) in the national sphere, regions such as eastern Nepal (Thapa
et al. 2014; Katuwal et al. 2015) are considered
major hotspots in pangolin poaching and trafficking. People around the globe illegally trade to
consume the fetuses and various body parts like
scales, bones, meat, and claws to increase healing power in different
traditional medicines (Katuwal et al. 2013; Thapa et
al. 2014; Boakye et al. 2015; Mohapatra et al. 2015; Heinrich et al.
2016). China and Vietnam are the
destination countries where most of the illegally traded pangolins from both
Asia and Africa reach (Corlett 2007; Challender &
Hywood 2012; Heinrich et al. 2016, 2017). Nepal has been a popular trade route for
transferring illegally hunted pangolins to the popular and nearest destination,
China (Acharya 2015) and traded through different eastern and central borders
via the Araniko highway of Nepal (Katuwal
et al. 2013).
Pangolins are nocturnal, covered with overlapping scales, and feed on
specialized diet comprising of ants & termites. Among eight species of
pangolins distributed globally, Nepal supports two, namely Chinese Pangolin Manis
pentadactyla distributed up to altitude 2,000m
and the Indian Pangolin Manis crassicaudata
distributed below 500m (Baral & Shah 2008; Jnawali et al. 2011; Sharma et al. 2020). Based on the elevation, the landscape of
Nepal is more favourable to Chinese Pangolin which is distributed more widely
than the Indian Pangolin (Sharma et al. 2020).
Besides Nepal, the Chinese Pangolin is also distributed in several Asian
nations including Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Hong Kong SAR, India, Myanmar, Lao
PDR, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam (Sharma et al. 2020). Besides poaching and illegal trade, various
other anthropogenic activities like deforestation, extensive grazing, forest
fire, agriculture accretion, human settlement, and infrastructure expansion,
traditional beliefs and road construction are severely responsible for
increasing threats to the pangolin population and its habitat (Challender et al. 2015; Katuwal
et al. 2017).
The Chinese and Indian pangolins are categorized as Critically
Endangered and Endangered, respectively, under the IUCN Red List of Threatened
Species (IUCN SSC Pangolin Specialist Group 2016) and are protected under the
National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (NPWC) Act 1973 (DNPWC & DoF 2018); however, very little documentation has been done
about the illegal poaching, trade route, hunting, and trading of pangolin in
Nepal (Katuwal et al. 2015; Sharma et al. 2020). Though Nepal is a signatory and party to the
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and has
provided all legal and institutional instruments to address wildlife trade
issues, the illegal pangolin trade has not been investigated in a satisfying
manner. Moreover, the traders have a
more sophisticated and advanced system for transporting consignments from one
place to another. This study aimed to identify
the status of pangolin trade by taking account of trade conditions and
highlighting the potential routes used for illegal trafficking within the Sankhuwasava District.
Study Area
Forty-three districts, including Sankhuwasava
are home to pangolins in Nepal (DNPWC & DoF 2018)
which is located in Province-1 of Nepal
(27.6142°N & 87.1423°E, 457–8,463 m), however, our study was confined to
three major municipalities namely, Khandbari
(457–1,500 m), Chainpur (1,200m), and Madi (500–2,900 m). Sankhuwasava District borders with Taplejung
and Tehrathum districts in the east, Solukhumbu and Bhojpur districts
in the west, Dhankuta district in the south, and
Tibet, the autonomous region of China in the north. Sankhuwasava is
extended from sub-tropical to alpine with large wilderness forest and
agricultural land that provides a suitable habitat for pangolins. Majority of the local communities are
indigenous Limbu, Rai, Yakkha, and Gurung (CBS 2012)
who are mainly subsistence farmers and belong to a lower socioeconomic status.
The primary data comprised survey response from respondents, key
informant’s survey, focus group discussions and seizure data. These were collected between February–April
2018 in Khandbari, Chainpur,
and Madi municipalities of Sankhuwasava
District (Figure 1). These
municipalities were specifically selected for this study as these are the major
markets and due to various anecdotal evidences such as seizure reporting on
local and national media showing high illegal trade of pangolins in the
area. Katuwal
et al. (2015) had also used major markets as key indicators in selecting study
area. Purposive sampling method
suggested by Boakye et al. (2015) was used to identify the potential respondent
within the district. These selected
respondents were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire. As suggested by Newton et al. (2008), a
two-person team conducted semi-structured interviews without precise,
pre-determined questions so that interesting lines of discussion could be
pursued. The team tried to pose open
questions wherever possible, to avoid leading the interviewee into a response
(Newton et al. 2008). Semi-structured
interview was directed toward information of trade and its triggering
factors. A process of chain referral was
followed where other potential respondents were referred to by the respondent (Newing et al. 2011).
Seventy-five respondents, including seven children were
interviewed. The surveyor checked the
respondent for species identification by providing well illustrated pictures of
both the Indian and Chinese pangolins as well as videos showing the behavior of both the species. Interviews were conducted in Nepali languages
and were translated to English.
Literature about pangolin distribution has only mentioned Chinese
Pangolin distribution in Sankhuwasava District (Baral & Shah 2008; Jnawali et
al. 2011). But we cannot omit the fact
that some trade might be of Indian Pangolin from outside the study area with
the district acting as a transit zone. So,
both the Indian and Chinese pangolin trade were taken into account.
Trade information was obtained from the seizure report of the district
forest office (DFO), district police office (DPO), and Makalu Barun National Park (MBNP) from 2009 to 2017 (Figure 5).
Information from 30 key informants (KI) including DFO staff (n=7),
district court office (n=4), police personnel (n=9), the Federation of
Community Forestry Users Nepal (FECOFUN) staff (n=3) & community forestry
user committee members (n=7), and four focus group discussions (FGDs), one in
each of the three municipalities and one with law enforcement agencies, were
used to identify the major trade routes and market hub for pangolin trade. Various seizure hotspot were supporting
evidence for predicting the trade route.
FGD and KI were the main source of information in identifying the trade
route map which was prepared with the help of GIS.
Purposive sampling was used to identify the respondents who were aware
of the pangolin, which they had either seen live or heard about from someone
else. Out of total respondents, some 36%
(n=27) had seen the pangolin alive, and a few (10.67%; n=8) had seen dead
pangolins; while most others (53.33%; n=40) were just familiar with the species
through indirect means like photographs, newspaper, television, and radio
programs. Solitary and nocturnal nature
of the species might be the potential reason for lower number of respondents
seeing the species live (Jnawali et al. 2011). Identifying pangolin to species level (whether
Manis pentadactyla or M. crassicaudata) was difficult since most (69.33%; n=52)
of the respondents had no idea about the species of pangolin, as in nature both
the pangolins are solitary, nocturnal, and burrow-dwelling (Baillie et al.
2014; Challender et al. 2014); however, the remaining
30.67% respondents had claimed the presence of Chinese Pangolin which was
validated by showing the photo of both the species of pangolin. A detailed discussion with respondents revealed
hunting by humans (88%; n=66) as the major threat to pangolin, and thus, the
types of people involved in hunting, their hunting manner, and purpose were
explored.
Types of people involved in hunting
Forty-eight percent (n=36) of respondents stated that a majority of the
unemployed youths (16–35 years old) are involved in illegal hunting; 25.33%
(n=19) of respondents stated that children (<16 years old) are also
involved, while 26.67 % (n=20) were not sure about exact participation of the
age group (Figure 2). Similar results
were reported by Katuwal et al. (2015), where they
claimed that youth, especially the unemployed, were encouraged in illegal
hunting by traders. From group
discussion, it was revealed that the children were mostly lured to hunting as
there is less likelihood of security personnel to suspect children, and also
the pay rate for them is low. This was
verified by security officials during investigation of seizure data too.
Identifying the manner of hunting can help to predict the intensity at
which pangolin is hunted. Out of the
total respondents surveyed, the majority (44%; n=33) had no idea about how
often and by what method pangolins are being hunted, while some (32%; n=24) of
them reported opportunistic hunting of pangolins, some (17.33%; n=13) reported
of rare hunting and the rest (6.67%; n=5) reported intentional hunting. We concluded that the existence of community
forest, that are strongly guarded by local communities have hindered the
hunting of pangolin in forest area. So,
people are found to be more engaged in opportunistic hunting. Chin & Pantel
(2009) also recorded the same in their study.
Similarly, D’Cruze et al. (2018) reported
opportunistic hunting in tribal communities in Assam. Harrison et al. (2016) explored impacts of hunting on tropical forests
in southeastern Asia and highlighted the importance
of opportunistic hunting as it does not require much skill.
When it comes to the purpose of hunting, monetary benefits was the most
popular response with 66% (n=50) respondents.
Following monetary benefits, uses such as traditional medicine, meat,
and very few cultural values were some other reasons (Figure 3). In the local context, the use of pangolin and
its parts (like its scales) are believed to have healing power to cure
wounds. More importantly, the pangolin
is believed to cure arthritis and also consumed to increase immunity. Pangolin scales are taken as anti-poisonous
reagent, where the belief exists.
Moreover, pangolins are perceived to bring extreme bad luck (commonly
called ‘loddar’) and thus, are hunted more
often. In addition to these, pangolin
claws and scales are used to make rings, bracelets, and other ornaments. All these social and cultural values have collectively
added to hunting of the pangolin.
However, at present higher monetary values are suppressing these
cultural values associated with the species.
Similar results were found by Corlett (2007) where he stated that
hunters catch pangolins to supply for trade rather than for personal consumption.
Condition of pangolin
trade
The status of the pangolin population was assessed
where 60% of the respondents had noticed the decrease in pangolin population
especially due to high hunting for illegal trade in the past and due to habitat
fragmentation. Forty-two respondents
(56% of total 75 respondents) identified high profit to be a major reason for
trade, followed by low awareness (20%; n=15), poverty (20%; n=15), and poor law
enforcement (4%; n=3). Unemployed local
youth and children involved in the hunting of pangolins supply its parts to
local traders for a small sum of money.
It was found during the study, that the price of pangolin rises
exponentially at every level of the value chain from local hunters to final
traders. The minimum price of pangolin
at local hunter was about Nepali Rupees (NRS) 4,000–5,000 per kg, which
increases to NRS 15,000–40,000 per kg in the illegal market. The average price at the Chinese border was
higher, ranging from NRS 100,000–150,000 per kg where they were used, especially
for preparing bulletproof jackets. Being
illegal, prices fluctuate and the difference are site specific. Thus, the actual price may be clear that
illegal hunting of pangolin is a serious crime in Nepal. However National Park and Wildlife Conservation
Act in Nepal (NPWC Act 1973) has declared both the species of pangolins as
protected and any offence regarding them costs a penalty of NRS
100,000–500,000, or imprisonment from 1 to 10 years, or both (1US$= 118.90NRS
as per Nepal Rastriya Bank exchange rate on 12 March 2020)
Types of people involved in trade
The majority of the respondents (52%; n=39) claimed
that the trade was a side business for most non-timber forest product (NTFP)
traders (Figure 4), especially involved in the trade of Elaeocarpus
ganitrus (Rudrakshya)
and Elettaria cardamomum
(Elaichi), that are the major NTFPs of Sankhuwasava District.
Katuwal et al. (2015), however, claimed the
involvement of youth, cow herders, local businessmen, and unemployed locals in
pangolin trade through coordinated arrangements. The result of this study also identified that
the illegal trade of pangolin goes side by side with trade of these NTFPs and
finally reach Indian and Chinese markets.
Discussion with KI led us to the conclusion that poor people are often
lured by NTFP traders for a small sum of money.
So, in this process if any seizure occurs, only poor people working as
middleman who do not know about the consequences of smuggling the species get
arrested. On the other hand, the real
traders are mostly free. Most cases
registered in the DPO validate these statements.
Fluctuation in pangolin trade
The fluctuations in pangolin trade was assessed, taking into account
both the respondents’ opinion and the seizure data obtained from DPO, DFO, and
MBNP. The seizure data were tallied with
the respondents’ opinion which also showed a decreasing trend (80%; n=60) in
trade. It contradicts with the result
obtained by Katuwal et al. (2015) who advocated
towards increase in trade. So, further
discussion with KI from DFO and MBNP led to the conclusion that the reason for
decrease in seizure could be enforcement of more security forces in every
transit point of the district.
Deployment of Nepal Army forces at the national park area that serves as
the main route of trade to China border for two years could also have been the
major reason for threatening the smugglers using the route. Various missions of the security forces to
control the illegal trade and moreover some personal enmity between traders
might be the reason for leaking the information and thus, increase the seizure
in some years.
Identification of major trade route through Sankhuwasava District
Sankhuwasava has easy access to China through the Kimathanka border of the district. Majority of the pangolin parts are either
directly hunted within the district, or the district serves as the trade route
to China. Khandbari
municipality appears to have been developed as the main hub for pangolin trade.
As informed by the sectoral police office, Chainpur,
previously, the majority of delivery entered the district via Chainpur route from Tehrathum. But after strengthening and increasing of the
number of police check posts in this route, the major road to enter the
district has become off the road of Legwa, Dhankuta District which has lower number of security check
posts due to poor condition of the road.
Key informants also suggested that Khandbari
and Num are major hotspots where the illegal trade is
running and once the pangolin parts reach Khandbari they
are transported to the China border (Figure 6).
The route shown in the map was predicted in accordance with the result
of focal group discussion, KI interview, and local respondent knowledge. More than 80% of respondents agreed to the
route demonstrated in the map. Various
seizure hotspots were also used as supporting evidence for developing this
map. This route showed some modification
from the trade route already proposed by Katuwal et
al. (2015) which showed Chainpur as the major entry
point. This can be explained from
Heinrich et al. (2017) who stated that wildlife trafficking occurs through a
highly mobile trade network with constantly shifting trade routes as he also
identified an average of 27 new unique routes emerging every year globally. It could also be presumed in our study area
that though trade might seem to be declining, it might still be rising via
shifted route especially through other routes rather than previous check posts.
Conclusion
The results suggest that majority of youths (especially unemployed) and
children were involved in illegal hunting and trading of pangolin. Unemployed youth and children were lured to
these activities by NTFP traders from local areas for small sums of money. The results also suggest that hunting was
done mainly for monetary benefits. We
found that illegal hunting is the major reason for the decline of pangolin
population in the area. Though the trend
of seizure appears to be declining, we do not have any knowledge if it is due
to decline in pangolin population. But,
the result suggested that the poachers might have been discouraged to use
specific routes after deployment of Nepal Army, as there are few seizures. Thus we recommend the continuation of strong
border security mainly in the trade route (Khandbari
to Kimathanka through Num, Hatiya, and Chepwa) to
China. Our findings suggest the
significant involvement of youth and children in illegal hunting; to reduce
this we recommend strong and sustained awareness programs in the area as most
of arrestees do not know about the consequence of the illegal trade. Development of alternative livelihood
opportunity may also be useful for poorer people to avoid taking the risk. Furthermore, formation of community-based
anti-poaching units in the potential pangolin habitat could be a major
intervention to halt the trade. For
this, sustained motivation, anti-poaching trainings, security assurance, and
mostly incentives for worthy conservation outcomes are mandatory. Middlemen are being arrested rather than the
actual traders. This calls for capacity
building of enforcement agencies for detailed investigation of seizure data to
reach to the bottom of this illegal trade.
Finally, we suggest for a national-level study on looking into illegal
hunting and trade of pangolin, as its conservation is in peril.
Table 1. Socio-economic characteristics of
respondents.
|
Respondent characteristics |
Percentage |
|
|
Gender |
Male |
72 |
|
Female |
28 |
|
|
Age |
<16 yr. (Child). |
9 |
|
16–35 (Youth) |
56 |
|
|
>35 |
35 |
|
|
Education |
Illiterate |
11 |
|
School level |
66 |
|
|
College level |
23 |
|
|
Occupation |
Agriculture |
48 |
|
Hotel |
12 |
|
|
Shopkeeper |
13 |
|
|
Forest guard |
2 |
|
|
Travel agent |
5 |
|
|
Driver |
4 |
|
|
Teacher |
11 |
|
|
Private service |
5 |
|
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