The nervous little man, whose full name is withheld by AFP, ignores the ban on bushmeat hunting and earns most of his money by catching pangolins or monkeys in the surrounding jungle.

In the dry season, Emmanuel waits for nightfall then walks in the jungle with his rifle and his machete.

Pangolins, scale-covered insect-eating mammals that are usually the size of an adult cat, are mainly active at night, sniffing around in dead wood for ants and termites.

The species is increasingly threatened around the world, but remains a delicacy in this impoverished West African country.

Their scales – made of keratin, like human fingernails – are also prized by consumers overseas for their supposed medicinal properties, bringing in some much-needed cash.

“We kill it, we eat it,” said Emmanuel, in a village in Gbarpolu county, a five-hour drive north of the capital Monrovia along dirt roads.

“Then the scales, we sell them,” added the hunter. “There is no other option”.

Considered the most trafficked animal in the world, pangolins are only found in the wild in Asia and Africa, but their numbers are falling under the pressure of poaching.

Asian pangolins once met high demand from East Asian countries such as China and Vietnam, where the animal’s scales are used in traditional concoctions.

But Africa became the main source of trade from 2013, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, UNODC, in a change likely prompted by declining pangolin numbers in Asia.

Main target

Countries like Liberia, as well as Nigeria, Cameroon and Guinea, are all source markets.

Phillip Tem Dia, who works for Flora and Fauna International, a non-governmental organization in Liberia, said pangolin killings “have really, really increased” since the scale trade began.

Liberia is a prime target for traffickers. Over 40 percent of the country is covered in rainforest and governance is weak.

It is also still recovering from the brutal civil wars of 1989-2003 and the Ebola crisis of 2014-16.

As conservationists sound the alarm, the Liberian government has banned the hunting and sale of pangolins.

But it is fighting against a generations-old tradition of its impoverished citizens consuming the animal.

Patchy data also hampers conservation efforts. Pangolins are solitary and reclusive, and their numbers in the wild remain a mystery.

“There are huge gaps in our understanding,” said Rebecca Drury, wildlife trade manager at FFI.

Available evidence, however, suggests a steep decline in numbers.

“Crushing” losses

Known as “bear ants” in Liberia after their favorite food, pangolins move about by waddling and have no jaws or teeth.

They curl up into a hedgehog-like ball when threatened. Their scales provide protection.

But humans can just pick up pangolins and take them away.

“They are very sensitive animals,” said Julie Vanassche, director of Libassa Wildlife Sanctuary in Liberia, near Monrovia, which rehabilitates rescued pangolins.

Many die of stress in captivity, she says, despite round-the-clock care.

The sanctuary has released 42 into the wild since it opened in 2017, but the number is likely a drop in the ocean.

A 2020 study by the United States Agency for International Development estimated that between 650,000 and 8.5 million pangolins were removed from the wild between 2009 and 2020.

“Either way, the numbers are staggering,” the study says, citing deforestation, bushmeat consumption and the scale trade as reasons for the pangolin’s decline.

According to the UNODC, seizures of pangolin scales have also increased tenfold since 2014, pointing to a booming global trade. In July, China seized two tons of contraband scales, for example.

Vanassche, a Belgian with a pangolin tattoo on her forearm, said the future “isn’t very good”.

“We have to act very quickly – it’s almost over,” she said.

Market Raids

Outside a market in Monrovia, a forest officer pours gasoline over a pile of confiscated bushmeat and lights a match.

The mound of dead monkeys, and at least one pangolin, burst into flames as women gather to swear at a dozen officers from Liberia’s Forestry Development Authority.

They have just conducted one of their first market raids in the capital, after years of raising awareness about wildlife laws.

Liberia banned the sale of bushmeat in 2014 following the Ebola crisis.

In 2016, it also banned unlicensed hunting of protected species, handing violators up to six months in jail or a maximum fine of $5,000.

The FDA agents – all tall men who say they are determined to stop the bushmeat trade – seem to have little sympathy for the market traders, who are all women.

“Our protected species are being killed every day by poachers,” said FDA anti-smuggling unit chief Edward Appleton, in combat gear, adding that the country’s natural heritage was under threat.

But Comfort Saah, a market trader, was distraught when her wares burned by the roadside. She said she lost the equivalent of almost $3,000 in the raid.

The sum is enormous in a country where 44% of the inhabitants survive on less than 1.9 dollars a day, according to figures from the World Bank.

“How are we going to live? Saah said.

– ‘We ate it’ –

In rural areas, there are few signs that the government is enforcing anti-poaching laws. Pangolin scales were ubiquitous in three villages in northern Gbarpolu county visited by AFP.

Many villagers had small bags hidden in cob houses. Some had full bags.

“It’s not easy to get them. The numbers are going down,” said the chief hunter of a village, whose name AFP retains, wearing a black tracksuit.

He explained that he hunted because there was no work and he did not understand why this practice was illegal.

Several local hunters said traders visited remote villages for scales, but very few had come in the past year, suggesting the pandemic had hampered them.

A young hunter, however, told AFP that he had sold scales in recent months.

The product pays relatively little: a small plastic bag containing the scales of two pangolins costs a few US dollars, according to several testimonies.

The money often goes to basic necessities such as soap, several said.

A 2020 study by the Netherlands-based Wildlife Justice Commission said one kilogram (2.2 pounds) of pangolin scales can sell for $355 in China.

Even during a lull in the scale market, pangolins are hunted for their meat.

Matthew Shirley, co-chair of the pangolin specialist group at the International Union for Conservation of Nature, told AFP it was “totally unrealistic” to expect people living in poverty to do not eat protein-rich pangolins.

The focus should be on sustainable hunting, he said.

In one village, a woman named Mamie had a baby pangolin clinging to her body. Her husband had found her in a palm tree with her mother two days earlier.

© 2022 AFP