Guangxi Forestry Department Responded to Public Questioning on their "Reselling pangolins"; CBCGDF Points Out Authorities Destroy Evidence
2019/2/23 20:03:00 本站

On January 21 of this year, the Upstream News reported that the Forestry Department of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (GFD) had been sued repeatedly by the non-profit China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) because of it's suspected of inadequate rescue to confiscated pangolins.

 

On February 20, the GFD held a press conference to inform the media that the survival rate of pangolin rescue in 2018 had already been greatly increased compared with 2017. In response to public doubts about the quality of pangolin rescue capabilities and breeding/farming institutions, the Guangxi Forestry Department responded that it was caused by objective technical conditions.

 

Sophia Zhang, the famous "Pangolin Guardian Girl" dubbed by netizens who's in charge of CBCGDF's pangolin-rescue, told Upstream journalists that the CBCGDF welcomed Guangxi Forestry Department's announcement that the pangolin rescue would be wildly released, and the determination in public destruction of dead pangolins' bodies; but she questioned that the destruction of the dead pangolins at this time was "evidence destruction", and that the CBCGDF would further require the Forestry Department of Guangxi to make relevant information public.

 

On pangolins died in large numbers - GFD: not their fault; it's a world conundrum

 

At the press conference, GDF said that in order to strengthen pangolin rescue work, Guangxi has established a wildlife protection management organization and a shelter and rescue network system, with pangolin rescue as a key research object.

 

When been asked by journalists why the Guangxi Wildlife Rescue Center transferred dozens of pangolins to private companies, the GDF explained that according to the China's current law, Sunda pangolin (Manis javanica) is an alien invasive species and cannot be released into the wild in Guangxi, it can only be domesticated and bred by pangolin farming. According to the officials, some of these unreleasable pangolins are under rescue and breeding in Guangxi Wildlife Rescue Center, the others are also provided as germplasm resource to external qualified entities for conservation.

 

In response to the Upstream News' report that pangolins died in large numbers in artificial breeding bases, GFD said that the main reason is that the difficulty rooted in rescuing pangolin's physiological characteristics. First, pangolins have a single diet source, mainly feeding on termites, natural feed is difficult to obtain, artificial alternative feed is still exploring; second, pangolins are timid, stress-prone, and basically refuse to eat after being captured, many of them die of dehydration and starvation; third, illegal traders feed pangolins with food that is difficult to digest, after long-distance transportation, pangolins' health are seriously damaged due to their bodies' condition. It is difficult to administer medication when pangolins are sick because of their special morphology and physiological function, which makes it difficult to be rescued successfully. In addition, the lack of experienced experts in related fields is also an additional major reason for the failure in rescue and breeding of pangolins.

 

"Pangolin rescue and artificial breeding has always been a worldwide recognized problem. There are very few successful cases, but we cannot give up exploratory research because of the difficulty. The original purpose of why we transferred pangolins to external unit was that we want to jointly tackle pangolin's rescue and breeding technology." said Liao Hekang, director of Guangxi Wildlife Rescue Center, who told the media that after years of exploration, his rescue center has already accumulated some rescue experience, but because of its weak technical strength and high financial pressure, they have no choice but to cooperate with private enterprises and units with technical conditions.

 

Jiang Yinghong, Director of GFD's Wildlife Protection Division, said that the Guangxi Forestry Department has not granted any permission for the management and utilization of pangolins to any artificial breeding entity so far. All foster pangolins, including dead ones, are not allowed to enter the market. Dead pangolins and their carapaces are processed harmlessly by burning, burying or dissolving under the approval and supervision of the Forestry Administration after receiving application from the Rescue Center.

 

Upstream journalists noted that Guangxi forestry authorities had not responded to earlier reports of alleged use of forged official seals by Guangxi Wildlife Rescue Center.

 

The CBCGDF questioned GFD on destroy of evidence, and will apply for information disclosure

 

In response to the statement made by GFD on February 20, the CBCGDF, which is still conducting administrative litigation with Guangxi Forestry Department, also responded.

 

Sophia Zhang said that the pangolin series lawsuits against GFD are still in progress, especially involving criminal cases, environmental public interest litigation, and administrative litigation. The destroyed bodies of dead pangolins are the most important evidence in the litigation. In public interest litigation cases, Guangxi forestry authorities said pangolins' deaths were caused by viruses. "The cause of death of pangolins can only be concluded through autopsy, but they said that they were destroyed. These practices are suspected of destroying evidence."

 

The CBCGDF told the journalists that it will apply for new information disclosure, requiring the Guangxi Forestry Department to disclose data including all video recordings, signatures and registration for the destruction of Pangolins' carcasses.

 

Original Chinese news article:

https://www.cqcb.com/diaocha/2019-02-22/1453959.html