Crackdown on illegal wildlife trade

25 July 2016
Crackdown on illegal wildlife trade
A male pangolin in its enclosure at Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Center in Takeo province, Cambodia, 20 February 2016. Photo: Mak Remissa/EPA

Smuggling of illegal wildlife to foreign countries will be closely monitored and strictly controlled to prevent wild animals from extinction, state media reported on 24 July quoting an official from the Ministry of Resource and Environmental Conservation.
The forestry department is gathering data about smuggling of wild animals and their parts in border areas with the assistance of international non-governmental organizations Wildlife Conservation Society and World Wide Fund. Check-ups are being conducted in border channels. Ivory, snakes, tortoises and pangolins are among the most common things being smuggled, the report said.
Those who are in possession of, trafficking, transporting and exporting wildlife will be either fined Ks50,000 or given a seven-year prison sentence.