Despite stiff penalties provided by law, Uganda has seen an increase in pangolin trafficking offences, a multimedia investigation by Benjamin Jumbe shows Dr Victor Musiime, the zoo veterinary officer at the Uganda Wildlife Conservation Education Centre, tends to a pangolin injured in March 2022. Photo: Benjamin Jube Offenders convicted of crimes related to wildlife species classified as extinct in the wild, or critically endangered, face the highest penalty under Uganda’s Wildlife Act 2019 of a Shs20-billion (about US$5,5-million) fine or life imprisonment, or both. Despite this, pangolins are being heavily targeted for poaching and trafficking in the East African country. Data from global wildlife trade monitoring organisation Traffic indicates that between 2012 and 2016, more than 1,400 pangolins were seized by Ugandan authorities. There are eight species of pangolins in the world, with four found in Asia and four in Africa. All eight species are given the highest level of protection available under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), and international trade in the endangered mammals is banned. Uganda is home to three of the four species found in Africa: Ground Pangolin, Giant Pangolin and the White Bellied Pangolin, which is also known as the Tree Climbing Pangolin. Vincent Opyene, chief executive of the Natural Resources Conservation Agency, an organisation partnering with the Uganda Wildlife Authority to combat wildlife crime, said illegal trade in pangolins is increasing worldwide, including in Uganda. “The problem of illegal trade in pangolins and pangolin scales is increasing every day and, if not controlled and managed, can easily lead to extinction of the species,” Opyene cautioned. Opyene says all three species of pangolins found in Uganda are targeted, with dealers and local poachers involved in the business with the hope of making money. “They are killing this species and taking away the scales in the hope that they are going to find a market and will definitely trade and sell it,” Opyene said. “Every time we arrest poachers who are involved in this they keep telling us it [the scales] will go for about $150 per kilo, and yet I haven’t come across anyone willing to buy pangolin scales at that amount; it is just a myth they keep believing that the market is there,” he added. In Uganda, prosecutions involving seizures of pangolin scales increased from seven cases in 2018-2019 to eight cases in 2019-2020 to 10 cases in 2020-2021, according to data from the Uganda Wildlife Authority tracked on the #WildEye East Africa map. However, penalties meted out in court cases involving pangolins between 2019 and 2021 were far more lenient than the maximum penalty provided for in the Wildlife Act 2019. Penalties in 44 cases involving pangolins ranged from fines of between UGX200,000 ($56) and UGX3,000,000 ($838), and between three and 24 months in jail. There were just two cases involving jail time longer than one year, one of these mandating imprisonment only if the convicted could not pay the fine. This data has been tracked and published on the #WildEye East Africa map, a joint project of InfoNile and Oxpeckers. For example, in a case involving one pangolin carcass the sentence was a fine of just UGX300,000 ($84); in a case involving one live pangolin the fine was UGX1-million ($279); and in a case involving 3,62kg of pangolin scales the fine was UGX2-million ($559). In another case involving one live pangolin the sentence was just three months in prison. Asked about this state of affairs, the Uganda Wildlife Authority’s director of conservation, John Makombo, said the judiciary is an independent institution which can “make decisions based on what they think but also guided by the law”. However, in an effort to improve this the authority is doing a lot of sensitisation of the judiciary. “That is one of the strategies we are using to ensure that criminals get the right sentence for crimes they commit,” Makombo said. Rebecca Sandoval, cofounder of nonprofit organisation the Biodiversity Alliance, said there is a need to sensitise the public about the new wildlife law in place, arguing that many do not seem to appreciate the importance of conserving wildlife and the heavy penalties provided in the law. “We need more education; more awareness of how these animals benefit communities, tourism, conservation, and I think we need more awareness of the wildlife law. People need to understand that there is a wildlife law and huge consequences if you are caught,” Sandoval said. She added that illegal wildlife trade is often transnational, and there is need to do more to disrupt trafficking networks. “We need a network to fight the criminal networks.