Wildlife group: HK still a hub for pangolin trade

An organisation that campaigns against the international wildlife trade says Hong Kong remains a major hub for the global trafficking of endangered pangolin, with one of the creatures poached every 21 minutes on average.

Sam Inglis, wildlife programme manager for the AMD Capital Foundation, made the comments on Monday ahead of a Legco discussion on an amendment to the Organised and Serious Crimes Ordinance to include wildlife trafficking. Activists have long campaigned for a change in the law.

Speaking on RTHK’s Hong Kong Today programme, Inglis criticised what he said was a failure to adequately investigate a record-breaking seizure of 8.3 metric tons of pangolin scales in the SAR in 2019.

“We obviously know that a criminal syndicate was involved in all stages of getting that shipment from Nigeria to Hong Kong,” he told RTHK’s Janice Wong. “So, fundamentally, what we need to be doing is investigating these crimes.

“We also need to be delving into the financial transactions that are behind them and, ultimately, we would like to see sentences handed down to numerous individuals who are involved in the orchestration and also financially benefiting from these organised and serious crimes.”

Inglis said the foundation’s latest research report, to be released later on Monday, showed that wildlife trafficking had worsened in recent years.

Members of Legco’s environmental affairs panel will debate a proposed amendment to the Organised and Serious Crimes Ordinance, put forward by the DAB’s Elizabeth Quat, on Monday afternoon.

If approved, the proposal would give investigators additional powers to tackle wildlife crime and allow for longer sentences and the confiscation of the proceeds of crime.

It has received strong support from local and international environmental organisation.