Cites is an international trade agreement signed by 183 countries, including the United States. While the commercial sale of pangolins across international borders will no longer be permitted under the agreement, enforcement is lacking in many countries. The vast majority of pangolin trade already violates Cites and the laws of many nations.

Elusive and shy, pangolins have not earned the sort of attention from conservation groups given to elephants, tigers, rhinoceroses and lions. But pangolins are the most trafficked mammals in the world: More than one million have been illegally traded since 2000, mostly for their meat, considered a delicacy in some Asian countries, and for their scales, which are used in traditional Chinese medicine.

Image A young male pangolin eating red ants from a leaf. Credit... Luc Forsyth for The New York Times

“Poachers who take ivory are increasingly getting caught with pangolin scales as well,” said Aurélie Flore Koumba Pambo, scientific coordinator at Gabon’s national parks. “If we continue to postpone strengthening of pangolin protection, we will find ourselves in a position where all African pangolin species disappear from our ecosystems forever.”

India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Vietnam, Nigeria and Senegal — along with a few co-sponsoring countries, including the United States — put forward proposals at the treaty meeting to increase protections for pangolin species.