A pangolin was found hidden inside a plastic drum, locked in the trunk of a car, about to be sold at a gas station in South Africa. Police caught the smugglers before the sale happened. The pangolin survived. But for every animal rescued like this, countless others don't make it, and the officers who pulled off this rescue are part of a small, underfunded network trying to hold back a trade that spans the entire globe.
Sign the petition to demand that international funders dramatically increase financial and technical support for wildlife conservation and anti-trafficking enforcement in South Africa and across the region.
Pangolins are the most trafficked mammal on earth. More than a million have been taken from the wild in the past decade alone, driven by demand for their scales in traditional medicine that has no proven health benefit. Eight species are now threatened with extinction, and four are critically endangered.
South Africa sits at the center of this crisis, home to extraordinary biodiversity and to the law enforcement units, wildlife rangers, and rescue centers working around the clock to stop trafficking rings before animals disappear into the black market.
But protecting a global inheritance shouldn't fall on one nation's budget. South Africa's police, conservation officers, and rehabilitation centers are stretched thin, working case by case, seizure by seizure, often with a fraction of the resources this fight actually requires. The demand driving this trade comes from around the world.
The funding to stop it should too. Real investment from international funders, in surveillance technology, ranger training, rescue infrastructure, and cross-border enforcement, would mean fewer pangolins in car trunks and more trafficking rings shut down before they start.
Sign the petition now and demand that the international community match South Africa's commitment with the funding it deserves, before more endangered species pay the price for a crisis the whole world created.
