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Associated Press

Activists in China have released a pangolin into the wild to celebrate new protections for the endangered animals.
Volunteers had rescued and rehabilitated the pangolin nicknamed Lijin after it was found by a fisherman in the eastern province of Zhejiang.
“This is a good start … but this is not good enough,” said Zhou Jinfeng, secretary general of the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Fund, the group behind the pangolin’s release on Thursday.
Just last year in Zhejiang, authorities arrested 18 smugglers and confiscated over 23 tonnes of pangolin scales sourced from an estimated 50,000 animals, according to Chinese state media.
After volunteers unlocked a transport crate, the pangolin crawled onto the lush forest floor outside Zhejiang’s Jinhua city.
Pangolins removed from Chinese directory of medicines
“We will release a lot more soon,” said Zhou, who has vowed to free all pangolins in captivity in China.
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 have 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.
China’s new protection laws forbid the raising of pangolins in captivity and the use of their scales in the nation’s traditional medicine industry.
Zhou said that efforts to halt the sale of pangolins in China were buoyed by a raise in global awareness of the wildlife animal trade linked to the outbreak of the coronavirus in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.
The June 5 order from the National Forestry and Grassland Administration did not explicitly mention the outbreak as a reason for the measure, but the timing appears to indicate it could be part of China’s nationwide crackdown on the wildlife trade following the pandemic.
Scientists say the coronavirus was most likely transmitted from bats to humans via an intermediary animal such as the pangolin.
China steps up legal protections for pangolins
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.
Zhou said China’s native pangolins have been all but wiped out. Over the past five years, Zhou and volunteers found only five where hundreds of thousands lived just three decades ago.
Zhou said the new protections give groups like his the right to sue businesses and individuals selling pangolin scales.
However, he 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 ivory trade.



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Chinese wildlife activists free pangolin to celebrate new protections

The pangolin, nicknamed Lijin, was released into the wild in Zhejiang province. Photo: AP

(FILES) This handout file photo taken on January 5, 2018 and provided by the Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department shows a seizure of about 1,800 kilograms of suspected pangolin scales from a container, with an estimated market value of about 350,000 USD, at the Kwai Chung Customhouse Cargo Examination Compound in Hong Kong. - China has removed pangolin parts from its official list of traditional medicines, state media reported on June 10, 2020, days after increasing legal protections on the endangered animal. (Photo by Handout / Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department / AFP) / -----EDITORS NOTE --- RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department" - NO MARKETING - NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS

China steps up legal protections for pangolins

Pangolins are among the world’s most endangered species as a result of poaching and smuggling. Photo: Shutterstock

Chinese customs officials carry sacks of pangolins scales they seized on a ship in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, China November 29, 2017. Picture taken November 29, 2017. REUTERS/Stringer ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. CHINA OUT.

Chinese and Vietnamese demand for pangolin scales and meat is pushing the shy, scaly animal to extinction

A pangolin, which has become one of the world’s most trafficked animals, searches for ants. Photo: Alamy

This handout photo taken on January 5, 2018 and provided by the Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department shows a seizure of about 1,800 kilograms of suspected pangolin scales from a container, with an estimated market value of about 350,000 USD, at the Kwai Chung Customhouse Cargo Examination Compound in Hong Kong. - The reclusive pangolin, also known as the scaly anteater, has become the most trafficked mammal on earth due to soaring demand in China and Vietnam. (Photo by Handout / Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department / AFP) / TO GO WITH China-HongKong-animal-conservation, FEATURE by Joanna CHIU-----EDITORS NOTE --- RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department" - NO MARKETING - NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS /

This picture taken on October 22, 2016 shows Lam Kim Hai, 24, vet of Save Vietnam Wildlife (SVW), taking care of a pangolin with injured legs at his lab in SVW, who runs the Carnivore and Pangolin Conservation Program in Cuc Phuong National Park in the northern province of Ninh Binh. - The reclusive pangolin has become the most trafficked mammal on earth due to soaring demand in Asia for their scales for traditional medicine and their flesh, considered a delicacy. (Photo by HOANG DINH NAM / AFP) / TO GO WITH VIETNAM-ENVIRONMENT-WILDLIFE-CONSERVATION-PANGOLIN, Focus by Jenny VAUGHAN

Another rescued pangolin at Save Vietnamâs Wildlife in Cuc Phuong National Park. Photographer: Olivier Laude for Bloomberg Businessweek

Nguyen Van Thai in Cuc Phuong National Park. Photographer: Olivier Laude for Bloomberg Businessweek

A pangolin searches for ants. Photo: Alamy

Hong Kong hands down its stiffest sentence yet for pangolin scale smuggling

The 100kg of pangolin scales seized from the two mainland Chinese men. Photo: Handout

FILE PHOTO: A customs officer shows a pangolin to the media at the customs department in Bangkok September 26, 2011. Officers stopped a pick-up truck carrying 97 pangolins, worth around 1 million baht ($32,372), in the southern province of Prachuap Khiri Khan on Sunday. According to custom officers, the pangolins were en route to be sold in China. REUTERS/Chaiwat Subprasom/File Photo

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Release was to mark new legal measures to conserve one of the world’s most trafficked animals whose scales are used in traditional medicine
Wildlife campaigners promise to free more pangolins from captivity



Release was to mark new legal measures to conserve one of the world’s most trafficked animals whose scales are used in traditional medicine.


Coronavirus pandemic

Coronavirus pandemic: All stories

Chinese wildlife activists free pangolin to celebrate new protections

Release was to mark new legal measures to conserve one of the world’s most trafficked animals whose scales are used in traditional medicine Wildlife campaigners promise to free more pangolins from captivity

Release was to mark new legal measures to conserve one of the world’s most trafficked animals whose scales are used in traditional medicine

Wildlife campaigners promise to free more pangolins from captivity