REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, CIBINONG -- Rangers of Area I of Bogor's Natural Resource Conservation Agency (BKSDA) thwarted an attempt to smuggle 263.78 kilograms of pangolin (Manis javanica syn) scales to Hong Kong.
"We confiscated hundreds of pangolin scales in Cibinong's post office, from where it was supposed to be delivered to Hong Kong," Head of Area I of Bogor's BKSDA, Sri Hindrati, said here on Monday.
The scales were packed in 14 packages, with each weighing more than 18 kilograms. It would have cost more than Rp2 million to ship each package to Hong Kong, Hindrati added.
In addition, Head of Area II of Bogor's BKSDA, Ari Wibawanto, stated that the seizure was a follow-up to another pangolin smuggling case in Jakarta, where the authority concerned confiscated 10 kilograms of the nocturnal mammal's scales.
"Pangolin is a protected animal, according to law number 5/1999 on natural conservation," Wibawanto affirmed.
The related authority is hunting down the seller of the pangolin scales in the Bogor region in West Java.
It is suspected that the perpetrator collects the scales from pangolins in Central Java, one of the habitats of the protected animal.
The scales and meat of pangolins---also known as scaly anteaters---are in high demand, primarily in China and Vietnam, for medicines and as a delicacy, respectively.
Furthermore, they are also protected under the UN's Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES); trading in the animal and their products is illegal.
Pangolins are also included in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2008 as being endangered.
According to conservation groups, smuggling of the animal is rampant, and they are frequently poached from the wild, particularly in Indonesia and Malaysia. This exacerbates the threat of their extinction due to rapid deforestation.
In December 2012, the Ministry of Forestry destroyed and buried at least 7.4 tons of illegal pangolin meat and 64 kilograms of confiscated pangolin scales in Bogor.
The pangolin meat and scales had been seized by the Indonesian Customs Department, police, and forest protection and nature conservation groups, among other authorities, from two Chinese citizens who had intended to smuggle them from the Tanjung Priok Port in July 2011.
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