Illegal ivory trade shrinks while pangolin trafficking booms, UN says
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The illegal global ivory trade has decreased, but trafficking of pangolins is on the rise, a United Nations report into wildlife crime has revealed.
The study, compiled using four years of data, showed that revenue from ivory trafficking peaked between 2011 and 2013.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said that national bans on selling ivory, particularly the ban enforced in China in 2017, have caused the global trade to fall.
‘The World Wildlife Crime Report 2020 has some good news and some bad news,’ UNODC research chief Angela Me told Reuters.
‘We see some shrinking in some markets, particularly the ivory and the rhino (horn) market, but we actually see huge increases in other markets, like the market of illicit trafficking of pangolins, in European eels but also in tiger parts and also in rosewood.’
Pangolins are a reclusive, nocturnal mammal covered in scales. Their scales are used in traditional Chinese medicine to promote blood circulation and reduce blood c...
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