Campaign moves to towns of Bertoua, Ebolowa and Mbalmayo after positive response from restaurant owners in Yaoundé and Douala
WildAid’s “No Pangolin On My Plate” ("Pas de Pangolin Dans Mon Assiette") campaign is moving to the towns of Bertoua, Ebolowa and Mbalmayo, after an enthusiastic response from restaurant owners in the cities of Yaoundé and Douala.
Already, more than two hundred 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.
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 have visited 394 restaurants serving bushmeat and traditional Cameroonian dishes. The overall response was very positive, with 214 signing up to the campaign.
Among the restaurants visited were 137 restaurants that were serving pangolin meat. Of that number, 59 have already joined the campaign, representing 43% of the total. Those 59 restaurants have all pledged to stop serving pangolin meat.
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 is promoting these restaurant as pangolin-free on a specially created website (https://pasdepangolindansmonassiette.org/). In a second phase of the campaign, 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.
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.
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 termites 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
