'HK People Back Pangolin Scales Medicine Ban'

A survey by the conservation group WildAid suggests there's widespread support in Hong Kong for removing pangolins as an ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine.

More than two-thirds of 1,000 people they interviewed considered their use to be unacceptable.

Alex Hofford, a wildlife campaigner with the group, told RTHK’s Richard Pyne that the findings are important because most of the world's pangolins are being poached to meet demand in China, and Beijing is now considering upgrading the species to the highest level of national protection.

Hofford noted that while it’s illegal to buy pangolin scales on the streets, there are licensed retail outlets without traditional Chinese medicine clinics, and an upgraded protection level will make the trading of pangolins “100 percent illegal and there will be no grey area”.

“Hopefully, they will ban the selling of pangolin scales within the hospital system in China. That would be the ultimate goal of all of this,” he said.

Hofford also noted that the director of the University of Hong Kong’s School of Chinese Medicine, Professor Lao Li-xing – who worked with WildAid on the survey – also believes endangered species should no longer be used in Chinese medicine.

He cited Lao as saying that using endangered species will harm the reputation of Chinese medicine, and such ingredients can in fact be replaced by herbal alternatives.

The campaigner said hopefully awareness in Hong Kong will continue to rise, and the government will then “fall into line” and ban the use of pangolin scales as well.

“There are plenty of effective and sustainable herbal alternatives to this stuff, you don’t need to be slaughtering and poaching endangered species in Africa to cure a headache in Hong Kong. It’s just madness,” he said.