PROTECTING PANGOLINS
Wild Tomorrow Fund hosted a live panel on World Pangolin Day, February 20th 2021, highlighting the plight of the pangolins with special guests Adams Cassinga, Founder of Conserv Congo, and Leno Sierra, African Pangolin Working Group’s Zululand Field Manager.
Read more in our latest blog below
World Pangolin Day is celebrated annually on the third Saturday of February – a global day to bring awareness to the plight of the pangolin, the most trafficked animal in the world. Wild Tomorrow Fund’s Wendy Hapgood moderated a live panel with pangolin protectors Adams Cassinga and Leno Sierra.
Adams is the founder and CEO of Conserv Congo in the Democratic Republic of Congo who is on the frontline of the war against pangolin poachers. Leno, African Pangolin Working Group’s KZN Field Manager, is playing a vital role in the reintroduction of Temminck’s Ground Pangolin to protected areas in our region. Adams and Leno are from different ends of the illegal wildlife trade in Africa and we delve into both the darkness in poaching pangolins and the hope in reintroducing pangolins.
Conserv Congo busting wildlife traffickers with 600 kg of pangolin scales (worth almost 1 million dollars on the black market).
Speaking with Adams, we learned that before Conserv Congo’s inception – no wildlife trafficker had ever set foot in jail in the DRC. Today, Adams (working with informants and undercover agents) has investigated over 1000 cases having to do with wildlife trafficking and of those, 500 have gone to the court level. Just last December, he and his team busted a group of wildlife traffickers with half a ton of pangolin scales. It is hard to imagine how many pangolins that must be.
From the darkness of poaching to the hope that rehabilitating and reintroducing brings, we switched gears to chatting with Leno from the African Pangolin Working Group (APWG). The APWG works in conjunction with the Johannesburg Wildlife Veterinary Hospital to reintroduce the Temminck’s ground pangolin, and Leno is at the forefront taking part in the release and soft release of these very endangered animals. When an animal is released, it is tracked using a satellite tag or VHF – which can be very expensive. Leno gives light to the number of resources and work that needs to go into reintroducing this species back into the wild.
Barbara Merolli, a Wild Tomorrow Fund supporter and previous ACE volunteer, was given praise and thanks for her support of pangolins throughout the years. Barbara sponsored a pangolin tag replacement at andBeyond’s Phinda Private Game Reserve in 2020. We hope she will be able to join us in the field in 2021 and walk with Leno and the pangolins, seeing how her donation has helped this species.
Leno reacting to the generous camera trap donation from The fStop Foundation
Leno spoke about the lack of resources in the field and all that could be done with more resources such as camera traps and funding. It didn’t take long for Wild Tomorrow Fund’s partner and fStop Foundation’s founder, William Freund, to raise his hand to donate camera traps for Leno’s pangolin work.
Wild Tomorrow Fund supports both Adams in the DRC and Leno in KZN. If you’d like to donate to our pangolin protection work, which 100% of your donation will go towards supporting pangolin protection work, click the DONATE button below. Click here to watch the full recording of our live event with these two incredible pangolin protectors.