Recently, an article was published in the Guangxi Forestry website in September this year, "Guangxi pangolin rescue work is in the national forefront." This sounds really ridiculous for CBCGDF, which has long been concerned about the pangolin rescue work in Guangxi.
The article said at the beginning: according to reports, this year, Guangxi has seized 248 live pangolins in 21 batches, 84 survived, with a success rate of 34%, and 6 other individuals survived due to human care.
From a numerical point of view, it seems to be a very impressive achievement. However, the actual situation is that in 2017, 32 live pangolins rescued by the Guangxi Forestry Department died in the following 2 months and 5 days.
Of course, the article published in "Guangxi Forestry" is very "smart" to exclude the 32 pangolins from the above statistics. The article relies only on the data of the first 9 months of this year and leads to a "national forefront" conclusion.
Many friends who are familiar with the CBCGDF or who care about pangolins know that CBCGDF has been criticizing, questioning and supervising the Guangxi Forestry Department and its subordinate ambulance centers for more than a year after the illegal acts of pangolin rescue.
During this period, the CBCGDF has applied for information disclosure to the Guangxi Forestry Department for public data and information on pangolin rescue. The Guangxi Forestry Department began to use “not counting according to the annual statistics”, “related information is of advisory nature and does not belong to government information” and "will not give any reply" in response in the end.
From beginning to end, the pangolin rescue work of Guangxi Forestry Department has always been shrouded in a fog.
Then suddenly, in September of this year, an article told everyone that "Guangxi pangolin rescue is at the national forefront"?!
It is very confusing to CBCGDF.
According to the current situation of the CBCGDF, there are at least "four sins" in the Guangxi Pangolin rescue work:
1. The information on the pangolin rescue has not been recorded over the years.
The CBCGDF has received an information disclosure of the Guangxi Forestry Department. The content of the reply is that “the terrestrial wild animals such as the pangolins are the statutory duties of the forestry departments at all levels. The management of the pangolin rescue in our office is mainly carried out in batch mode. The relevant data were not compiled according to the annual statistics."
2. The pangolin rescue information is not made public
In response to the CBCGDF's application of the information on the pangolin rescue and on the death of the pangolins being disclosed in 2012-2016, the Guangxi Forestry Department takes approaches of not replying and not caring. This is also the direct reason why CBCGDF filed an administrative lawsuit against such a flagrant violation.
3. All pangolins were died due to ineffective rescue
The 32 pangolins rescued in August 2017 are the best proof. During the rescue period, CBCGDF coordinated the experts of the IUCN pangolin species survival committee to participate in the rescue and asked the Vietnamese pangolin veterinarians with rich experience to carry medicines and food to Guangxi to participate. However, they were all rejected.
4. Knowing that the enterprises have failed for many years of breeding and there are problems with the farming license, the Guangxi Forestry Department still continuously delivers the alive pangolins to the enterprise. Also, the subsequent registration management of the transported pangolin is lacking.
These four aspects have never been effectively resolved.
If in accordance with the article published in the "Guangxi Forestry": "Every pangolin receiving handover, ambulance handling procedures require written vouchers, establish management files, and every step is strictly in accordance with the rules."
Then, what can't be made public? After all, everyone is trying to better protect the pangolin and protect this globally endangered species!
At the same time, in the article, it mentioned that in the "2018 National Wildlife Rescue Committee annual meeting", the participating experts believed that Guangxi pangolin rescue work was in the national forefront." CBCGDF hopes to openly debate with these experts.
Finally, CBCGDF wants to have a special dialogue with the expert in the article who claims that Sunda pangolins are used as field species and cannot be returned to the field in accordance with the law. There is a traditional distribution of Sunda pangolins in southern Yunnan in text evidence. At present, the forestry departments of many places in China have successfully rescued and released Sunda pangolins.
It is also true that Guangxi Forestry has never released a single pangolin in the wild.
Now, in addition to the above-mentioned administrative litigation, the CBCGDF also filed an environmental public interest litigation (EPIL) on the problem of the relief of the pangolin in the Guangxi Forestry Department. We look forward to knowing more facts and truth.
Here, CBCGDF wants to make recommendations to the local forestry departments: we hope that when put the pangolin in the wild, a tracker would be installed to monitor the survival in the wild in the long-term, which is not only conducive to the pangolin conservation after the wild release, but also effectively fill the gap in the research field of pangolins in China, and provide more scientific research basis for solving the problem.
The screen capture of the official website of the Department of Forestry of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region
The original paper:
Original Chinese article:
http://www.cbcgdf.org/NewsShow/4854/6881.html
By / Shuya