- The Philippines has welcomed more than 2 million international tourists since travel restrictions were lifted at the beginning of the year. Palawan, the home of the Philippine pangolin, has received more than 500,000 tourists this year.
- The critically endangered Philippine pangolin is hunted to the brink of extinction for its scales and meat; China is the Philippines’ neighbor and a major tourism market, driving global demand for the products.
- A recent report on the dynamics of pangolin trafficking in the Philippines says that the development of local pangolin trafficking networks since 2016 is partly linked to policies encouraging Chinese tourism and direct investment.
- A post-COVID-19 recovery in tourism will also lead to a surge in pangolin smuggling, experts warn.
As the Philippine tourism industry recovers from the coronavirus pandemic, wildlife trade analysts expect the country’s endemic pangolin poaching to resume.
The mysterious Philippine pangolin (Curleon Goat Grass) has been hunted to the brink of extinction to satisfy the insatiable global demand for its scales (used in the production of traditional Chinese medicine) and its meat, which some restaurants serve as a luxury food.
In November, the Philippine tourism department announced that the country had welcomed more than 2 million tourists since the government eased border restrictions earlier this year. In the beach paradise of Palawan province, home to the Philippine pangolin, more than 500,000 international and domestic tourists will arrive by 2022.
The government also predicts a resurgence in tourists from China, the world’s largest consumer of pangolin parts. Before the pandemic, Chinese nationals were the second-largest and fastest-growing segment of the Philippine tourism market.
This has drawn the attention of conservationists, including independent Philippine wildlife trafficking researcher Emerson Sy, who recently collaborated with the Global Initiative to Combat Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC) on a study describing the dynamics of Philippine pangolin trafficking.
Sy told Mongabay via instant message that many pangolin consumers stayed away during the pandemic lockdown. “But as the economy opens up again, some of these consumers may return to the Philippines, which will lead to an increase in demand for pangolins again.”
In the GI-TOC report he co-authored, the increase in illegal pangolin hunting over the past two decades, and the apparent sharp rise from around 2016, is linked to the development of local trafficking networks. The researchers say the rise of these illicit networks has been driven in part by tourism marketing efforts and policies in the Philippines that have encouraged growth in Chinese tourism and direct investment, especially in Palawan and Metro Manila .
“The surge in tourism led to permanent settlement of many Chinese nationals who arrived as tourists and were later encouraged to do business in the country under the foreign investor visa program,” the report states. “Some investors created illicit revenue streams through trading in environmental goods, Either to supplement their illicit business or just use it as a front.”
The number of pangolins seized increased more than ninefold between 2018 and 2019 compared to the previous 18 years. Conservationists predict the upward trend will continue as the Philippines reconnects with pangolin consumer groups.
“As the Philippine economy opens up further and tourism and trade return to pre-pandemic levels, demand for pangolins will increase, especially as the supply of ingredients needed for traditional Chinese medicine may need to be addressed,” said wildlife crime prevention expert Edward R. Lorenzo said in an email interview.
Lorenzo, a policy and governance consultant for the nonprofit Conservation International Philippines, which was not involved in the GI-TOC report, expects demand for pangolin meat to rise in luxury restaurants. “Certain businesses are reopening and the usual consumers are flying back to the Philippines to satisfy their demand for pangolins,” he said.
unresolved gap
Even with pandemic restrictions, pangolin smuggling continues, experts say. “The pandemic lockdown provided respite for Philippine pangolins, but it didn’t stop the trade,” Sy said. “Based on the retrieval and seizure of live pangolins in (Metro Manila) and nearby provinces, we know that the trade is continuing, albeit at a lower rate.”
The pandemic might even work in the traffickers’ favor. “With online transactions and digital payments booming, this could help complicate (pangolin smuggling),” said Sabine Schoppe, a pangolin expert with the Katala Foundation Inc, a nonprofit in Palawan., in an email interview.
“Increasing tourism may push it even further,” added Schoppe, whose group began working with local governments and communities in 2007 to protect the species, around the time of decline in China and other Southeast Asian countries.
The unabated trade demonstrates lingering enforcement response gaps and challenges in the Philippines.
These include “a lack of intelligence-led operations in Manila, insufficient resources to tackle environmental crimes in Palawan, and possible political obstacles to fighting traffickers there, as well as a lack of role for international cooperation in curbing trafficking,” the report’s co-author said. By Simone Haysom of GI-TOC via instant message.
“None of the major gaps in addressing pangolin smuggling have been addressed during the pandemic,” Haysom told Mongabay.
some advices
The GI-TOC report cites a study estimating that as many as 26,784 pangolins may be poached illegally each year on Palawan, a national problem driven by international demand. “It was a real shock,” Lorenzo said. “As long as the trafficking network continues and is not destroyed, the Palawan pangolin will continue to face a very dire threat to its population.”
The GI-TOC report said this indicated the need to devote more political priority and resources to enforcing anti-trafficking laws. In addition, it called for greater cooperation among agencies in the Philippines, as well as those in countries such as Malaysia, Vietnam and China that operate with transnational pangolin trafficking networks. The report also calls on the government to work with development agencies and civil society groups to take anti-poverty measures in areas where pangolins are found and hunted.
“We have a good idea of what drives demand,” Sy said. “What the government needs to do now is to make local communities more resilient to wildlife poaching. The most pressing issue is poverty in Palawan. The economic windfall from tourism should also benefit the community.”
Banner image: A Philippine pangolin hangs from a branch. Image courtesy of Dexter Alvarado/Katala Foundation via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0).
Related Reading:
It’s not too late to save Philippine pangolins, study finds
Citation:
Archer, LJ, Turvey, ST, Apale, CM, Corona, DB, Amada, RL, and Papworth, SK (2021). Digging deeper: Understanding the illegal trade and local use of pangolins in Palawan, Philippines. Conservation Frontiers of Science, 2.doi:10.3389/fcosc.2021.746366
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