- A study of Chinese court records from 2010 to 2023 found that pangolin scale seizures peaked in 2018 and have since declined; while the authors attribute this to increased enforcement and public awareness in China, independent observers cite global factors like COVID-19 and stricter regulations in source and transit countries.
- The study identified six key cities in China — Bozhou, Chongzuo, Dehong, Beijing, Hong Kong and Kunming — as major transit hubs for the illegal pangolin scale trade, with most scales originating from Africa, particularly Nigeria, and smuggled via seaports and overland routes.
- The clandestine nature of the trade, weak enforcement in rural and border regions, and underreporting mean the true scale of the trade is likely far greater than reported, with corruption and advanced smuggling techniques enabling illegal activities to persist.
- Researchers call for strengthened law enforcement, community engagement, outreach to traditional medicine practitioners, and international cooperation, alongside legislative reforms to ban the domestic use of pangolin scales in traditional Chinese medicine and close wildlife trafficking loopholes.
An analysis of Chinese court records from 2010 to 2023 finds that pangolin scale seizures in the country peaked in 2018 before beginning a steady decline.
The paper attributes this to increased enforcement and public awareness in China, but observers cite global factors like the COVID-19 pandemic and stronger enforcement in source and transit countries, warning the scale of the trade may be higher due to underreporting and its clandestine nature.
In the recent study, published in Nature, experts from South China Normal University analyzed 390 cases of illegal pangolin scale trade recorded from 2010 to 2023 in China Judgments Online, the country’s most authoritative and comprehensive case adjudication platform. Using geospatial and statistical methods, the study found that most confiscated scales originated in Africa, and were funneled through six key Chinese cities, known for their thriving traditional medicine markets, international trade links, and strategic locations.
The researchers had previously analyzed the same database to track seizures of pangolin meat, which they found to be consumed on a limited scale as a luxury item and status symbol mainly in southern China. By contrast, pangolin scales are consumed for medicinal purposes and used in many Chinese regions.
The analysis of court cases related to pangolin scales attributed the drop in reported seizures to heightened enforcement and growing public awareness efforts across the country.
“We think that this was closely related to the strong intervention in wildlife-related violations in recent years in China and the vigorous development of wildlife conservation education, including for pangolins,” the authors, who declined interview requests, wrote in the paper.
The paper notes that in recent years China has intensified efforts to curb wildlife trafficking through partnerships with NGOs like WildAid to train law enforcement in identifying smuggled pangolin products; nationwide crackdowns; international law enforcement collaborations; and specialized antismuggling operations. In 2020, China banned wild animal consumption, upgraded pangolins to the highest protection level, imposed stricter trafficking penalties, and removed pangolin scales from its official list of traditional medicine ingredients.
The U.K.-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), however, offers a different explanation for the decline of seizures after 2018, pointing instead to global factors. EIA pangolin campaigner Erin Chong cited factors “including the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as increased awareness and enforcement in source and transit countries so the scales don’t actually make it into China.”
Based on EIA Crime Tracker data, pangolin scale seizures globally peaked in 2019, both by number of incidents and quantity seized. “Since then, the lowest quantity of scales seized per year was in 2023, but 2024 showed an approximate three tonne increase,” Chong, who wasn’t involved in the study, told Mongabay by email.
Meanwhile, the researchers noted that their reported number of seized pangolins is likely an underestimate, as China Judgments Online only became fully operational in 2013, with mandatory public disclosures starting in 2014. Some recent smuggling cases may also be missing due to delayed judgments or other factors.
Olajumoke Morenikeji, West Africa chair of the Pangolin Specialist Group at the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority, said the seizure data reflects only a fraction of the true scale of China’s pangolin trade.
“The actual volume of pangolins being traded is almost certainly far greater than what official records suggest,” Morenikeji, who wasn’t involved in the study, told Mongabay by email. She cited corruption, weak enforcement, and sophisticated smuggling methods as factors enabling illegal shipments to evade detection.
Data limitations also contribute to underreporting, especially in rural areas and along porous borders where enforcement is weaker, Morenikeji said. “If seizures represent only what authorities manage to intercept, the unseen portion of the trade is likely immense.”
Major trade hubs, routes in China
The paper notes that the illegal pangolin scale trade is “widespread in China” and centered in the cities of Bozhou, Chongzuo, Dehong, Beijing, Hong Kong and Kunming, along with several other cities forming major routes. Without the trade participation of these six major cities, the analysis showed that “more than 90% of China’s illegal pangolin-trading network would be disrupted.”
These cities may have become key transit points in the illegal pangolin-scale trade due to factors such as Bozhou’s Chinese herbal medicine industry; the strategic border locations of Chongzuo (along the border with Myanmar), Dehong (on the border with Vietnam) and Kunming (a transit hub for goods from Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar) facilitating trade with neighboring Southeast Asian countries; or their roles as international exchange hubs, like Beijing and Hong Kong.
“Strengthening law enforcement in these cities will play a significant role in destroying the illegal trade in pangolin scales in China,” the paper says.
It traced trade links from African countries — Nigeria, Ethiopia, Equatorial Guinea, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Cameroon — to China and other Asian nations, including Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Laos, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, Nepal and Myanmar.
The EIA’s Chong said the study’s data, particularly the highlighted countries, aligns with the watchdog’s findings from open-source reports and intelligence.
“To my knowledge, there has not been another review of Chinese court cases like this, and it corroborates what we know about the illegal trade,” she told Mongabay by email.
Ninety-four percent of the 136,301 pangolins seized from 2010 to 2023 originated from African countries, primarily Nigeria, the paper noted, with the remaining 6% sourced from Asia. The white-bellied pangolin (Phataginus tricuspis) accounted for 90% of the scales, followed by the Southeast Asia-native Sunda pangolin (Manis javanica), at 5%. Only one case involved a Philippine pangolin (Manis culionensis).
Pangolin scales from Africa were found to be smuggled into China mostly via seaports, while scales from Asia primarily enter through cars and mail. Within China, scales are transported mainly by cars and trucks, with notable routes involving Bozhou, Beijing, Baoding and Tianjin. The paper recommends strengthening inspections of cargo from Africa and trucks entering and leaving Bozhou, as well as raising awareness among express delivery workers.
To combat pangolin scale smuggling at Nigerian airports and seaports, Morenikeji suggested focusing on strengthening law enforcement with better inspections, intelligence profiling and undercover work, while also deploying advanced technologies like AI scanners, wildlife forensics and electronic cargo tracking for improved detection and prevention.
Morenikeji said stronger border security, interagency collaboration, international cooperation and tougher legal measures — such as harsher penalties, expedited prosecutions and asset seizures — are also essential to dismantling smuggling networks.
“Beyond enforcement, engaging local communities, awareness campaigns and financial rewards for informants can encourage more people to report illegal activities,” she added.
The researchers call for increased outreach to traditional Chinese medicine practitioners, and for legislation to ban the prescription of pangolin scales to reduce demand and protect the species. They also recommend more scientific studies on the pharmacological effects — or lack thereof — of pangolin scales to promote alternative treatments and reduce their use in medicine.
The EIA called on China to comply with CITES, the global wildlife trade convention, by reporting pangolin stockpiles and submitting annual trade reports, while also urging it to amend its Wildlife Protection Law to close loopholes and shut down the legal domestic market for pangolin products, including their use in TCM. This way, Chong said, the manufacture of pangolin-based medicines would stop and “existing medicines in circulation are no longer advertised or available for sale.”
Banner image: Decades of exploitation have pushed all eight known pangolin species to the brink of extinction, with conservation statuses ranging from vulnerable to critically endangered on the IUCN Red List. Image by Bertoguide via Flickr (CC BY-NC 4.0).
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Citations:
Xi, F., Chao, X., Wu, S., & Zhang, F. (2025). Curbing the trade in pangolin scales in China by revealing the characteristics of the illegal trade network. Scientific Reports, 15(1). doi:10.1038/s41598-025-87183-5
Zhang, F., Xi, F., Tang, X., Cen, P., & Wu, S. (2023). The illegal trade network of pangolin meat in Chinese mainland and its implications for the implementation of key interventions. Biodiversity Science, 31(10), 23079. doi:10.17520/biods.2023079
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