Photo CrediT: Ekwoge Abwe/Zoological Society of San Diego & Drexel University
Birth of the Pangolin Conservation Network
Until recently, very little attention was paid to pangolin conservation in Central Africa and personnel with good knowledge to tackle the pangolin crisis in Central Africa were limited. In order to fill this gap, the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Zoological Society of London organized the MENTOR-POP (Progress on Pangolins) Fellowship Program. This 18 months program was based in Yaoundé, Cameroon and trained trans-disciplinary team of early-career Central African and Asian conservation practitioners to champion the conservation of pangolins in Central Africa. At the end of this unique learning experience, Fellows decided to keep on working together as well as individually to contribute to pangolin conservation in Central Africa. Fellows understood that they have different experiences, background, education, strengths and weaknesses which will complement each other, and they will be able to better develop and execute projects contributing to build their respective careers as they address the various threats to pangolins in Central Africa. Fellows also understood the need to inspire others to work on pangolins in Central Africa. As a result, Fellows decided to form the Pangolin Conservation Network (PCN) which started with all MENTOR-POP Fellows and other now added to Fellows are other emerging conservationists/wildlife researchers working on pangolins in Central Africa.
Credit: Tim Juul
Vision
We envision a world in which pangolins and all wildlife prosper in natural habitats across Central Africa and play significant ecological roles in harmony with people
Mission
Our mission is to develop individual and collective career opportunities that will enable us to promote efforts to conserve Central African pangolins.
Goal
By 2025, populations of pangolins in Central Africa are enhanced due in part to strengthened collaboration between PCN members, partners and stakeholders in developing and implementing projects to conserve Central African pangolins.
Objective 1
By December 2018, effective communication, information and experienced sharing are enhanced and inspire more ground actions to address threats to pangolins.
Objective 2
By December 2019, a one-stop platform for all pangolin information available to members is stored and made available to policy makers, researchers, conservation professionals when need arises to make policies and execute actions to curb threats to pangolins.
Objective 3
By December 2019, threats to pangolins in Central Africa are reduced due to implementations of some of the recommendations from researchers/experts on field assessment, law enforcement, and demand reduction (Build capacity for wildlife law enforcement and collaboration between police, customs and rangers, organize activities with governments to celebrate the world pangolin day in different parts of Central Africa, organize behavior change campaigns, conduct surveys on trade in pangolins, replicating field assessment protocol that was tested during the MENTOR-POP Fellowship Program in other protected areas in Central Africa in order to determine benchmark assessment of the status and threats to pangolins in these protected areas).
Membership
There two categories of members
Founding members: This is made up of MENTOR-POP Fellows and Mentors who were part of the network from creation.
Network members: These include any other person who is working on pangolin conservation in Central Africa who wishes to be part of the network. Members are admitted after assessment of their profiles and pangolin conservation activities.