• The highly trafficked mammal has been hunted for years.
• CS Balala said China's elevation of pangolins to a national level one protected species will speed up the end of legal trade of the species.
The government has lauded China's ban on the use of pangolins in traditional medicine.
China this week omitted the use of pangolin scales in its 2020 list of approved traditional medicine, a reprieve to the most trafficked animal.
Tourism CS Najib Balala on Friday said: “Removal of the pangolin scales from a list of approved ingredients in traditional medicine is a step in the right direction and we hope that this is going to ultimately make the Chinese government completely ban wildlife usage in traditional Chinese medicine.”
Balala said China's elevation of pangolins to a national level one protected species will speed up the end of legal trade of the species in the country.
“This guarantees that the species which are nearly extinct, will at least now have room to breed and repopulate,” Balala said.
Pangolins are shy, burrowing nocturnal mammals that are covered in tough, overlapping scales.
The species vary in size from about 1.6kgs to a maximum of about 33kgs.
They eat ants and termites using an extraordinarily long, sticky tongue and are able to quickly roll themselves up into a tight ball when threatened.
Their scales are made from keratin, the same protein that forms human hair and fingernails.
They play a critical role in the wildlife food chain as burrowing animals.
Large concentrations of giant pangolins and tree pangolins are found in Uganda, Tanzania, and Western Kenya and parts of the Coast.
In Asia, their existence is, however, being threatened as they are believed to have curative properties, and their meat is highly regarded.
It is estimated that as many as 200,000 pangolins are consumed each year in Asia for their scales and meat.
WildAid, a conservation group says that over 130 tonnes of scales, live and dead animals were seized in cross-border trafficking busts last year.
This, the organisation says, represented up to 400,000 animals.
According to a report from the 17th meeting Conference of the Parties (CoP17) of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wildlife Fauna and Flora (CITES), more than 1 million pangolins have been traded since 2000.
Despite being listed under CITES Appendix I, which includes species threatened with extinction and whose trade in the specimen is permitted only in exceptional circumstances, pangolins trade has continued.
The trade in pangolins has not only been ongoing in China because CITES does not regulate commercial sale of species within a country, but illegally trafficked into China too.
Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Uganda, Tanzania, and Sierra Leone are some African countries that engage in the illegal trade.
As of January 2020, on the Red List of Threatened Species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, three of the eight species of pangolin are listed as critically endangered, three are listed as endangered, and two are listed as vulnerable.
In February this year, the Chinese government comprehensively banned any trade in wildlife and wildlife products.