A 37-year old man was arrested in Messamena for illegal possession and attempts at selling over 100 kg of pangolin skins. The arrest that took place at midday on Friday April 14, 2017 was carried out by officials of the Forestry and Wildlife Control Post who were assisted by the Messamena Gendarmerie Territorial Brigade during a crackdown operation that took the notorious pangolin scale trafficker who had been under investigations for some time now.

The trafficker who owns a store is suspected to have been regularly supplying pangolin scales to clients in Yaounde and Douala. He would transport and sell bags of scales and on returning to his base he would buy provisions and supplies for his store, reports of preliminary investigations indicate. But on that day his luck ran out as investigations had provided enough information pertaining to an illegal sale of pangolin scales that was about to be carried out in town. The operation was carried out with the technical support of The Last Great Ape Organisation (LAGA).

The trafficker who is presently behind bars is expected to be charged with two counts including unlawful possession and circulation of a totally protected wildlife species, this, according to sections 101 and 158 of the 1994 wildlife law and could face up to 3 years imprisonment. Cameroon has three species of pangolins and only the giant pangolin was classified as totally protected but after the last CoP of CITES that held last year in South Africa, all species of pangolins were moved to Appendix I which gives the highest levels of protection under this UN convention that regulates trade in wildlife species. Minister Ngole Philip Ngwesse quickly reacted to the CITES’ decision by issuing a circular letter in January 2017 that says all pangolin species are totally protected in the country.

The illicit trade in pangolin scales has witnessed a very rapid increase over the last couple of years thanks to increase demand from the Asian markets. The scales are widely used in traditional Chinese medicines and as aphrodisiacs despite no scientific evidence of any therapeutic or curative properties. This has caused a huge black market for the scales and pangolins in Africa are paying a huge price for the incessant demands for their scales. The scales are collected by smaller traffickers who go around villages and buy the scales to supply bigger traffickers like the one arrested in Messamena. They in turn supply Chinese traffickers like the ones arrested in January in Douala with over 5 tons of scales sealed in two huge containers ready for export to China.

The trafficker is presently behind bars while awaiting the completion of the case file and the forwarding of the matter to the state counsel. The operation comes barely hours after three were arrested in Meiganga in the Adamaoua region for trafficking in feline skins including a lion and two leopards skins. The intensification of wildlife law enforcement operations is aimed at breaking an illicit activity that is destroying populations of wildlife in the country and government seems to be tackling the problem head on.