On Friday 9th August 2019 CIRMAD joined TRAFFIC, LAGA, ZSL, WWF, CABAG, CBI, Former Mentor-POP Fellows and university researchers from Cameroon and abroad for the launching of the the Cameroon Pangolin Working Group (CPWG) at Hotel Dajoll at Mbankomo (near Yaounde). This followed its creation at an earlier meeting on 22/02/2019 in Yaounde. The CPWG was officially launched by the Director Wildlife and Protected Areas of the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife (MINFOF), representing the Minister.
The overall objective of the CPWG is to ensure that knowledge, expertise/experience, and information on pangolins in Cameroon is shared and used by all stakeholders for the effective research, advocacy, monitoring and reporting of its illegal trade and lobby for improved policies in pangolin conservation.
It should be noted that following the listing of all 8 pangolins species in Appendix I by the 17th Conference of Parties (CoP17) of CITES in 2016, thereby totally banning them from international trade. Consequently, all 3 pangolin species of Cameroon have since become totally protected.
The overexploitation of pangolins through hunting and poaching for illegal international trade is persistent despite the different measures taken to protect pangolins over the past decades.
