KOTA KINABALU: Sabah is likely to be the transshipment point in an attempt to smuggle RM103 million worth of pangolin scales.
The huge shipment was seized by the state Customs Department here last month.
State deputy Tourism, Culture and Environment minister Datuk Pang Yuk Ming said the illegal goods were just on its way to its final destination.
“(The scales which are believed to be sourced from at least) 16,000 pangolins, there is no way that a population (of that size) can come from Sabah.
“The people here are very active (in protecting wildlife from getting poached),” he said after opening the Sabah Elephant Film Festival 2017 here this morning.
In an earlier report, the state’s customs director Datuk Dr Janathan Kandok had said that the department believes that the scales were en route to China.
The department had also nabbed a 43-year-old local man to facilitate investigation.
When asked to comment, state Wildlife Department director Augustine Tuuga said the department is not involved in the case but would do the necessary if the Customs Department seek assistance.
According to an article on the International Union for Conservation of Nature, in 2014, it was stated that the population of pangolins worldwide has declined by 80 per cent in the last 21 years and the number is expected to deteriorate further.
In Sabah, the Sunda pangolin or Manis javanica, is listed in Part 1 of Schedule 2 of the Wildlife Conservation Enactment 1997, which permits the hunting of the animal with a permit.
However, the government is in the process of revising papers on elevating the status of pangolins as totally protected species.
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