The emergence of Nigeria as a staging ground in the illegal pangolin exportation to South East Asia

Abstract

We summarize and characterize the emerging role of Nigeria in transcontinental illegal pangolin shipments from Sub-Saharan Africa to Asia from 2012 to 2019 using public online news reports data. The findings indicate that 57 seizure incidents were predominantly pangolin scales as reported from the findings and the equivalent of 462,092 individual pangolins trafficked from Nigeria. Also, findings reveal that China and Vietnam constitute 65 % of pangolin incidents reported. A peak was reached in 2018 for pangolin incidents, and Nigeria also serves as a transit route to Cameroon. We concluded that Lagos plays a crucial role in pangolin shipments to Asia.

Keywords

• Wildlife crime
• CITES
• Incident
• Traditional medicine
• Exploitation
• Gulf of Guinea