Pangolins, Elephants, And The Market For Body Parts
A decade of seizure data from the Wildlife Justice Commission shows that the trafficking of pangolin scales and elephant ivory has fallen sharply since its 2019 peak. After years of industrial-scale shipments moving from Africa to Asia, the trade was disrupted. Suddenly. Dramatically. And, so far, that disruption appears to be holding. But this is not a victory. It is a warning.
Between 2015 and 2024, more than 370 metric tons of pangolin scales were seized globally. That may represent anywhere between 100,000 and one million pangolins. During the same period, more than 193 metric tons of elephant ivory were seized, representing an estimated 19,300 elephants. These are not “products”. They are the body parts of individuals who were reduced to market demand, criminal logistics, status, medicine, investment and profit.
Pangolins are among the most trafficked wild mammals on Earth. Elephants have been slaughtered for ivory for centuries. Different species. Same logic. Take someone’s body. Strip it. Price it. Move it. Sell it.
The report compares the five years before the pandemic with the five years after it. In 2019, the trade reached obscene levels. Two record-breaking pangolin scale shipments seized in Singapore came to more than 25 metric tons. Three record-breaking ivory seizures in Vietnam, Singapore and China also came to more than 25 metric tons. These were not a few opportunists with bags at an airport. They were huge shipments requiring money, infrastructure, corrupt contacts and organised crime networks operating at an industrial scale.
Then COVID hit.
Border closures, travel restrictions and the collapse of in-person dealings caused immediate disruption. Pangolin scale seizures fell by 75% from 2019 to 2020. Ivory seizures fell by 94%. Crime bosses and their lieutenants could no longer travel easily, meet suppliers, move money as usual, or rely on the trust built through face-to-face dealings. By 2024, seizure volumes were still down by 84% for pangolin scales and 74% for ivory compared with 2019 levels.
That shows these networks are not untouchable. They are systems. Systems can be disrupted. But let’s not confuse disruption with abolition.
The trade did not vanish because humans suddenly stopped seeing pangolins and elephants as things. It fell because the machinery broke. Routes were interrupted. Trust collapsed. Law enforcement pressure increased. Prices changed. Risk changed. The business model became harder. That is good. It is not enough.
The Wildlife Justice Commission found that a small number of large seizures made up the majority of the body parts seized. Significant pangolin scale seizures were only 14% of reported pangolin scale cases, but 88% of the total weight. Significant ivory seizures were only 7% of reported ivory cases, but 75% of the total weight. That tells us something obvious: this is not just scattered individual criminality. This is organised exploitation.
The networks also do not seem emotionally attached to one animal or one product.
They move with markets.
As ivory demand declined, pangolin scales became more attractive. The same kinds of networks that had dominated ivory appear to have diversified into pangolin scales. Combined shipments of pangolin scales and ivory grew before the pandemic and became dominant by 2019, representing 51% of all pangolin scales and ivory seized that year. This is what happens when animals are seen as inventory. One body part dips, another rises. One market closes, another opens. One route gets risky, another is tested.
That is why product-by-product thinking will never be enough.
Ban ivory here. Ban scales there. Tighten one port. Increase checks on one route. All useful. None sufficient. The problem is not only ivory. The problem is not only scales. The problem is the belief that other animals are raw materials.
The report also shows why serious, intelligence-led enforcement matters. Not the theatrical version where authorities parade seized body parts for cameras, arrest the easiest person, then pretend the system has been dealt with. The useful kind targets the people organising, financing and protecting the trade. The bosses. Brokers. Shipping facilitators. Corrupt enablers. The people who make large-scale trafficking possible.
Law enforcement action in China and Nigeria appears to have had a major disruptive effect. WJC intelligence suggests arrests and prosecutions created fear, mistrust and a kind of stalemate between suppliers, brokers and buyers. That is important. These networks depend on trust. Break the trust, break the trade.
But there are still gaps.
Seizure data only shows what was detected. It does not show everything successfully trafficked. A fall in seizures could mean less trade. It could also mean better concealment, better corruption, altered routes, or shipments getting through undetected. There is also limited data on pangolin populations, meaning scarcity cannot be fully ruled out as part of the decline. In other words, fewer seized scales does not automatically mean safer pangolins. Fewer seized tusks does not automatically mean safer elephants.
And the routes are shifting.
Nigeria remains central for pangolin scale trafficking, while ivory shipments show movement towards Angola and Mozambique as alternative export bases. The networks adapt because that is what profit systems do. They do not develop a conscience. They reorganise.
So yes, this report gives us a rare thing in animal advocacy: evidence that pressure can work.
But the end goal cannot be a more efficient war against trafficking while demand remains intact. Demand is the engine. Organised crime is the delivery system. The ideology underneath it all is human supremacy.
Pangolins do not exist to be ground into medicine.
Elephants do not exist to have their teeth carved into status.
Wild animals are not resources waiting for the right criminal network to collect them.
The trade may be down.
The mindset is not.
That is what has to be dismantled.