CITES is an international treaty that is the closest thing we have to a worldwide Endangered Species Act. The agreement has the weight of law in many countries, resulting in an effective way to combat the illegal wildlife trade.
The pangolin is already protected under one section of the treaty, but moving it to the most at-risk category would ban commercial trade, the pangolin's biggest threat.
"In the 21st Century we really should not be eating species to extinction," said Jonathan Baillie, Conservation Program Director at the Zoological Society of London. "There is simply no excuse for allowing this illegal trade to continue."2
The United States is currently considering a proposal to provide the maximum level of protections to pangolins, and they're accepting public input until October 26.
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