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Aidan Jones

The jailing of two Vietnamese men who brokered a sale of 900kg (2,000lbs) of pangolin scales from Africa destined for the Chinese market has returned the spotlight to the illicit trade in an animal that has been poached to the edge of extinction.
Prized for its meat and scales, the pangolin has almost disappeared from forests and their hilly habitats of Africa and Asia.
Conservationists estimate around 1 million have been trafficked over the last decade, triggered by demand for traditional remedies in China.
On Wednesday, a court in Bac Ninh, a province outside Hanoi, sentenced Nguyen The Du and Nguyen Anh Ngoc to eight years’ jail each for supplying and brokering the sale of the large haul to police officers posing as buyers in a sting operation last June.

The scales, packed into 46 bags, came from three African species – the giant, white-bellied and black-bellied pangolin – according to anti-wildlife trafficking NGO Education for Nature Vietnam (ENV), revealing the global reach of the trade.
Poachers hunt the shy anteater to order across its habitat in the Democratic Republic of Congo and other West African nations.
“The fact that Vietnamese law enforcement secured the arrests and arrested the right people brokers and suppliers – not just drivers and mules – and then they got the seizure through court to conviction is hugely positive,” said Douglas Hendrie, counter wildlife trafficking director at ENV, which has closely followed the case.
Temporary relief
Conservationists say the verdict is a significant blow to transnational criminal organisations that have used the Mekong region’s porous borders to funnel illegal wildlife into key destination markets.
But the “win” may be temporary given that illegal wildlife trade is worth US$8 billion to US$10 billion annually in Asia alone, according to United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
Trafficking in wildlife products is much like drug trafficking
Douglas Hendrie, ENV counter wildlife trafficking director
“Trafficking in wildlife products is much like drug trafficking,” Hendrie said. “As you close down and tighten the grip on one route, traffickers will adjust and find another. As long as there is demand, there is money involved and people who will hunt, stockpile, ship wildlife.”
Dubbed the most trafficked animal on earth, the critically endangered Asian pangolin has been hunted to the point of extinction over the last decade. That has pushed a premium on the African species, which are smuggled into Thailand, Laos and Vietnam for onward sale into China.
Pangolin meat is considered a luxury across parts of Asia while the animal’s scales are used in traditional Chinese medicine for ailments such as lactation issues, poor blood circulation and skin problems – despite the lack of scientific basis that they work.

A 2025 Netflix documentary, Pangolin: Kulu’s Journey, and dozens of conservation charities have been pushing the unusual mammal to the public consciousness in a bid to save it from extinction.
Still, seizures of live pangolins are common across the Mekong, while stockpiles of scales regularly turn up in Laos and Vietnam, often traded openly online.
Thailand, Laos and Vietnam have long been a corridor for rare animal parts from Africa including rhino horn and elephant ivory to the Chinese market.
“The battle for wildlife globally is really about disrupting an important player who is then replaced,” Hendrie said. “It is a war of attrition that cannot truly be won until something is done about the demand side.”


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The Asian pangolin has been hunted for its meat and scales to the point of extinction, causing poachers to turn to its African cousins


The Asian pangolin has been hunted for its meat and scales to the point of extinction, causing poachers to turn to its African cousins.


Conservationists hail jailing of Vietnamese pangolin scale smugglers in 900kg haul

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The Asian pangolin has been hunted for its meat and scales to the point of extinction, causing poachers to turn to its African cousins

The Asian pangolin has been hunted for its meat and scales to the point of extinction, causing poachers to turn to its African cousins