Some 59 restaurants have pledged to stop serving pangolin meat as part of WildAID’s “No Pangolin On My Plate” campaign.
Campaigners visited 394 eateries that serve bush meat and traditional Cameroonian cuisine with 214 people signing up for the campaign, according to the wildlife protection group’s website.
Among the eateries visited were 137 that served pangolin meat and 59 have joined the campaign, accounting for 43% of the total. These 59 restaurants have all agreed to stop serving pangolin meat.
Restaurants participating in the campaign acquainted themselves with ethical and sustainable practices, boosting their reputation among environmentally sensitive customers. In this way, they contribute significantly to conservation efforts and assist in conserving Cameroon’s unique natural heritage.
WildAid’s “No Pangolin On My Plate” (“Pas de Pangolin Dans Mon Assiette”) campaign is spreading to the municipalities of Bertoua, Ebolowa, and Mbalmayo, following positive feedback from restaurant owners in Yaoundé and Douala.
More than 200 Cameroonian restaurants serving bushmeat and traditional meals have officially committed to forgo serving pangolin meat as part of a new effort to safeguard endangered pangolins.
The restaurants demonstrate their commitment to the campaign by displaying the campaign logo outside their premises and hanging posters explaining the importance of pangolin preservation.
WildAid is promoting the restaurant as pangolin-free on a specially created website (https://pasdepangolindansmonassiette.org/).
In the second phase, WildAid ambassadors and influencers will join the campaign to encourage consumers to choose pangolin-free restaurants. Together, restaurants and influencers can inspire others to follow suit, creating a ripple effect of change across the community.
Killing, capturing, keeping, or trading pangolins is forbidden in Cameroon, where all three species are protected under Category A.
A new Forestry and Wildlife law passed by parliament and signed by President Paul Biya in July has significantly increased the penalty for collecting or killing endangered species, resulting in imprisonment of 15 to 20 years, fines ranging from 20 to 50 million CFA francs ($34,000 to $84,000), or both. The legislative milestone is crucial in protecting and preserving Cameroon’s unique biodiversity. It demonstrates the government’s commitment to protecting wildlife, sending strong signals that unlawful activities will not be allowed.
Cameroon’s new forestry and wildlife law represents a significant stride forward.
Pangolins, commonly known as scaly anteaters, are solitary and nocturnal creatures that curl up into a ball when threatened. They play an important ecological role, eating 20,000 ants or termites each day, or 70 million per year, and are thus referred to as “guardians of the forest”. They aerate the soil while digging holes for ants, which promotes plant growth.
They are seldom seen in the wild and are hard to raise in captivity. Yet, pangolins have become the most heavily trafficked wild mammal in the world, with hundreds of thousands believed to be taken from the wild every year in Central Africa. Some are consumed as meat, but the greatest threat comes from using their scales in Traditional Chinese Medicine, despite no scientific evidence conveying any medical potential.
In 2016, all eight pangolin species found in Asia and Africa gained full protection from global commercial trade under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Cameroon followed up in 2017 by upscaling the protection of all three species of pangolins found in the country – White-bellied, Black-bellied, and the Giant pangolin – to bring them under category A protection. However, the illegal trade has continued. Today, six species are classified as “Endangered” or “Critically Endangered.”
WildAid’s work to protect pangolins in Africa
WildAid has been on the front lines of the fight for pangolins for nearly a decade, launching the first public awareness campaign in 2016 aimed at eliminating demand for pangolins in the world’s two largest markets – China and Vietnam. We employ behavior change campaigns designed to educate consumers and make consumption of pangolin products socially unacceptable, led in China by global celebrities such as Jackie Chan and Wang Yibo.
In 2022, WildAid launched a “Say no to pangolin meat” campaign in Cameroon, to raise awareness of the plight of the pangolin and the danger of pangolins becoming extinct here. The campaign has been led by leading musicians LOCKO and Stanley Enow, leading footballers Rigobert Song, Roger Milla, and Patrick Mboma, and many traditional leaders.
The campaign has reached millions of Cameroonians leading to a significant decrease in pangolin meat consumption in some of Cameroon’s main cities and towns. The number of people who now understand that pangolins are a protected species more than doubled, while more than two-thirds of urbanites now support the ban on killing or consuming pangolins.