Overwhelmingly positive response, as restaurant owners show their commitment to conservation
Cameroonian restaurants serving bushmeat and traditional dishes are signing up to a new campaign to protect endangered pangolins by making a public commitment not to serve pangolin meat.
The “No Pangolin On My Plate” ("Pas de Pangolin Dans Mon Assiette") campaign go under way in the cities of Yaoundé and Douala in June, and has already been embraced by 116 restaurant owners in the two cities. Restaurants are demonstrating their commitment to the campaign by displaying the campaign logo outside their premises and hanging posters inside explaining the importance of preserving pangolins.
In the course of the campaign, campaigners visited 190 restaurants serving bushmeat and traditional Cameroonian dishes. The overall response was very positive, with most signing up to the campaign.
Among the restaurants visited were 68 restaurants that were serving pangolin meat. Of that number, 25 of them have already joined the campaign, representing 37% of the total. Those 25 restaurants have all pledged to stop serving pangolin meat.
“We’ve been overwhelmed by the positive response to this campaign from restaurant owners,” said Simon Denyer, WildAid’s Africa program manager. “It shows that so many Cameroonians are keen to play a positive role in protecting this country’s incredible natural heritage.”
Restaurants joining the campaign have aligned themselves with ethical and sustainable practices, enhancing their reputation among environmentally conscious consumers. In this way, they are playing a vital role in conservation efforts, and helping to preserve Cameroon's rich natural heritage.
WildAid will promote these restaurant as pangolin-free through our social media channels and on a specially created website (https://pasdepangolindansmonassiette.org/). WildAid ambassadors and influencers will also join the campaign, encouraging 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.
“Our of the aims of our programme is to transform Cameroon's relationship with pangolins and other species, by linking them to the wider need to protect the country's forests and the animals that live in them,” said Jennifer Biffot, WildAid’s Francophone Africa Representative. “Pangolins are our main animal ambassadors.”
“If we can convince Cameroonian city-dwellers not to think of pangolins as food but rather as a symbol of the country's rich wildlife and forests, we can make a major contribution to saving pangolins from extinction in Africa, and at the same time promote a much healthier relationship with nature in Cameroon.”
The campaign was unveiled to the media at an event in Yaounde on Oct 17, attended by Elias Georges Messina, head of the Legal Affairs Unit of the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife (MINFOF) and two of WildAid's newest celebrity wildlife ambassadors, singer KRIS M (@krys.mofficial) and singer, songwriter and actor MIMIE (@m.i.m.i.e_), who all spoke passionately about the campaign, pangolins and wildlife conservation.
Follow the campaign on our website, and hear directly from restaurant owners and customers themselves.
Under Cameroonian law, it is illegal to kill, capture, keep or trade pangolins, as all three species existing in the country have been given the strongest Category A protection for endangered species.
A new Forestry and Wildlife law passed by parliament and signed by President Paul Biya in July has sharply increased the penalties for capturing or killing protected species, leading to imprisonment of 15 to 20 years, or fines ranging from 20 to 50 million CFA francs ($34,000 to $84,000) or both.
This legislative milestone represents a significant step forward in the protection and preservation of Cameroon’s rich biodiversity. It also underscores the government's commitment to safeguarding the nation’s wildlife and send a clear message that illegal activities will not be tolerated.
“This symbolizes Cameroon's commitment to preserving and conserving emblematic species for the benefit of biodiversity and future generations,” said Elias Georges Messina, head of the Legal Affairs Unit of the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife.
Following the enactment of the new Wildlife Law, the government moved swiftly to implement its provisions. On August 10, MINFOF agents carried out a surprise operation at the Nkoldongo bushmeat market in Yaoundé, seizing five white-bellied pangolins. A pangolin seller was arrested on the spot, brought before a court, and subsequently sentenced to two years in prison.
Cameroon’s new forestry and wildlife law marks historic step forward
Pangolins, also known as scaly anteaters, are reclusive and nocturnal animals that roll up into a ball when threatened. They perform a vital ecological role, consuming 20,000 ants or termiotes a day, or 70 million a year, and a result are often known as “guardians of the forest”. Using their claws to dig holes in search of ants, they also aerate the soil, encouraging plant growth.
They are seldom seen in the wild, and are very 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 for their meat, but the greatest threat comes from the use of their scales in Traditional Chinese Medicine, despite no scientific evidence that they convey any medical benefit.
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 its 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 on 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 reached millions of Cameroonians, and led 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.
Pangolin meat consumption falls in Cameroon, as support for protection rises
