CBCGDF Attended Pangolin Rescue Expert Symposium: Emphasizing that Releasing to Nature is the Ultimate Goal of Rescue and Preparing for the Wild Release of the Malayan Pangolins
2019/8/4 13:08:00 本站

On August 2, 2019, the Pangolin Rescue Expert Symposium was held in Changsha, Hunan. It was supported by the Department of Wildlife Conservation of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration (NFGA) and co-organized by China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF). Wu Zhimin, the Director of the Department of Wildlife Conservation of NFGA and Dr. Zhou Jinfeng, the Secretary-General of CBCGDF, as well as CBCGDF’s “Pangolin Girl” Sophia, together with the experts from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and university research institutes, the relevant wildlife authorities and rescue center personnel of the relevant provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government), representatives of the wildlife conservation association, etc. attended the symposium.

 

The topics discussed in this meeting mainly include two aspects: (1) The wild release of Malayan pangolins mainly includes the determination of natural distribution areas, the selection and determination of suitable habitats, the establishment of domesticated populations in the wild, and the method of  domestication in the wild, health and epidemic diseases surveillance indicators, tracking and monitoring of wild release; (2) The rescue of pangolins mainly includes physical testing norms and procedures, methods to promote active feeding and normal defecation, the prevention and control measures of  epidemic diseases, and the requirement of the rich capacity of the pangolins cages.

 

Since CBCGDF focused on following the rescue of the 32 pangolins in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in 2017, CBCGDF has sent letters repeatedly to the relevant departments of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, local rescue centers, etc. around the country, in response to the problems in the field of pangolin protection and rescue in China, also reflected the situation and expressed the willingness to provide assistance and to learn about the relevant information. At the same time, through field investigation and research on the situation of captivity and death of pangolins, it is hoped that the process of wild release of pangolins will be promoted as soon as possible. However, the actual situation is indeed that CBCGDF has encountered many constraints and obstacles, and even the defamation and mismatch of personnel of individual institutions.

 

At the meeting, Dr. Zhou Jinfeng, the Secretary-General of CBCGDF once again introduced to the participants in various fields that CBCGDF initially contacted IUCN’s pangolin experts to provide assistance to the rescue of the 32 pangolins in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Regarding the issue of pangolins rescue discussed in the meeting, he stressed that there is no disagreement about the rescue of wildlife in the world, “Only the release in the nature is to save them!”. Breeding studies of rescued pangolins and captivity lead to them to death are not in line with the idea of ecological civilization and does not conform to the concept of IUCN’s rescue!

 

Dr. Zhou pointed out that the issue of the wild release of Malayan pangolins in the discussion of this meeting, China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) has been working on the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) to entered and published the data of all kinds of specimens, records and occurrences that existed in China in the past on GBIF’s platform. “In China, there are two data publishers of the GBIF, one is the Biodiversity Committee of Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the other is CBCGDF. GBIF is the official database, in theory we have made sufficient preparations!”

 

In response to the discussion at this meeting, Dr. Zhou said: “There have been several great achievements today: First, they accepted the CBCGDF point of views: the rescue if the wild release. We did not need to discuss whether to release in the wild, we only need to discuss how to release in the wild. We sent it out early on social medias. Today we reached a consensus. The rescue centers around the world understand that the rescue is to understand the wild release. Second, the Chinese pangolins in principle no injuries, no other problems, should be immediately released in the wild, this achievement is also huge. The third achievement is that if the smuggled pangolins are seized, the process of transferring and returning to the source country is immediately initiated, which is also a very remarkable outcome. There is also an achievement also proposed by CBCGDF, which is similar to the wild domestication of the rescue, as well as the rescue in the fixed area, plus one-half of the wild domestication. We have reached consensus on several points. The downside is that the view of Malayan pangolin, which is China’s own species, is not been recognized and is consider to be doubtful.”

 

Also, worth mentioning is that CBCGDF has been doing all the time to call for the protection of pangolin initiatives, such as the pangolin protection level to the national I level, on pangolin protection regulations will be issued as soon as possible, these have achieved a sound push at this symposium.

 

This symposium lasted for one day. During the meeting, Dr. Zhou Jinfeng accepted interviews from several media.


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(Photo credit: CBCGDF)


Original Chinese article:

http://www.cbcgdf.org/NewsShow/4854/9443.html


By / Maggie