Nepal’s pangolins face extinction despite legal protection: why paper laws aren’t enough to save the world’s most trafficked mammal

Despite sharing the same legal protection status as tigers and rhinos in Nepal, pangolins remain on a devastating path toward extinction. Two of the world’s three critically endangered pangolin species call Nepal home, yet these unique scaly mammals receive a fraction of the conservation attention and resources dedicated to their more famous counterparts.

“It’s on a par with tigers and rhinos, but this legal status hasn’t translated into conservation investment or priority,” explains Kumar Paudel, a leading pangolin researcher and founder of Greenhood Nepal. This gap between legal protection and real-world conservation efforts has left Nepal’s pangolins—along with pangolin populations worldwide—vulnerable to relentless poaching pressure driven by illegal wildlife trade.

Pangolins have earned the grim distinction of being the world’s most trafficked wild mammal, with their meat considered a delicacy and their scales falsely believed to possess medicinal properties in East Asian markets. The numbers are staggering: more than one million pangolins may have been poached from the wild over the past decade, according to the IUCN’s Pangolin Specialist Group.

South Asia, including Nepal, has become a critical battleground in this trafficking crisis due to its proximity to high-demand markets in East and Southeast Asia. Paudel, who serves as vice chair for Asia on the Pangolin Specialist Group, warns that a significant portion of global pangolin trafficking likely originates in South Asia. Without urgent action that goes beyond paper protection, these remarkable creatures face extinction in the wild within our lifetime.