The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime says the outbreak of the novel coronavirus indicates that wildlife crime in Nigeria and other countries is not just a threat to the environment and biodiversity but to human health.
The UNODC, in its World Wildlife Crime Report 2020 published on Friday, underscored the threat that wildlife trafficking posed to nature, human health as well as biodiversity of the planet.
According to a statement by the organization, when wild animals are poached from their natural habitat, butchered and sold illegally, “the potential for transmission of zoonotic diseases — those caused by pathogens that spread from animals to humans — is increased.”
The UNODC said, “Zoonotic diseases represent up to 75 per cent of all emerging infectious diseases and include SARS-CoV-2 that caused the COVID-19 pandemic. The products offered from the trafficked species for human consumption, by definition escape any hygiene or sanitary control: as such, they pose even greater risks of infectious diseases.
“The report notes that pangolins, which were identified as a potential source of coronaviruses, are the most trafficked wild mammals in the world, with seizures of pangolin scales having increased tenfold between 2014 and 2018.
“Illegal pangolin trade in Nigeria seems to have grown significantly in recent years. Nigeria’s role in the trafficking is primarily a transit and logistical one, through its international airports and Lagos port. The country was the reported provenance of at least 51 tonnes of pangolin scales seized in 2019 (compared to two tonnes in 2015).”
It stated that Nigeria was the primary point of export of pangolin shipments as “close to 60 per cent of global pangolin scale seizures could be traced back to Nigeria as the source of shipping,” adding that out of 11 notable seizures made in 2019, seven had Nigeria as the reported origin country.
