Pangolin scale lawsuit in Indonesia could shake up how wildlife traffickers pay

• A civil suit submitted by an Indonesian NGO versus people and business implicated of trafficking more than 3 metric lots of pangolin scales in Indonesia might mark a turning point in how wildlife bad guys are held liable for the damages they cause on biodiversity and communities, according to specialists.
• The claim, looks for to make the supposed traffickers pay to fix the environmental damages triggered by eliminating countless pangolins from their wild environments, consisting of financing forest repair and pangolin tracking.
• Specialists state the legal method, which utilizes civil and ecological liability laws that likewise exist in lots of other nations, can be utilized in combination with traditional prosecutions to carry out significant preservation solutions.
• To date, the East Jakarta District Court has actually effectively summoned all however one specific offender, who stays desired by authorities. The very first mediation hearing is set for Nov. 5, after which, if no settlement is reached, the case will continue to trial.

When custom-mades authorities at Jakarta’s Tanjung Priok Port opened a shipping container flagged for assessment in February 2026, they anticipated to discover sea cucumbers and immediate noodles as suggested on the consignment documents. Rather, they discovered 3,053 kgs (6,730 pounds) of dried pangolin scales predestined for Cambodia.

It was amongst Indonesia’s biggest seizures of the prohibited product in the last few years, stimulating an uncommon claim versus the supposed culprits that professionals state might be an ingenious method to hold wildlife traffickers liable for the damage they cause upon communities and biodiversity.

As in numerous other nations, Indonesia mainly utilizes criminal laws to prosecute wildlife criminal offenses, a technique that has actually traditionally led to fairly brief jail sentences and fines that hardly ever approach optimum statutory charges.

Indonesian preservation NGO Science for Endangered and Trafficked Species (SCENTS) Foundation is taking a various method. In parallel to the state-led prosecution, the NGO has actually raised a civil suit requiring the supposed traffickers pay to fix the environmental damage brought on by eliminating countless pangolins from their wild environments.

“What was lost in this case was not simply 3 tonnes of scales,” Ma’ruf Erawan, director of SCENTS Foundation, stated. “Behind those scales were countless pangolins gotten rid of from the wild, together with eco-friendly functions and the worths all of us hold for Indonesian nature. The transgressors should be held liable for all the damage they triggered.”

The company, represented lawfully by Jakarta-based law office NET Attorney, submitted the civil suit on Sept. 2 at the East Jakarta District Court.

Particularly, SCENTS Foundation is looking for funds from 7 accuseds: Four people who are likewise dealing with criminal charges and 3 business apparently associated with shipping and saving the pangolin scales. If the case is successful, the offenders will be needed to pay to bring back 15 hectares (37 acres) of forest and display pangolins in Gunung Halimun Salak National Park in West Java, and to execute a public education project about the damages of wildlife trafficking. In overall, these solutions would cost around $136,500, the structure states on its site.

Tanjung Priok Customs officers check pangolin scales meant for smuggling into Cambodia in February 2026. Image by Tanjung Priok Customs Public Relations.

Civil lawsuits for corrective justice

Scientific consultants to the claim quote the illegal haul might represent more than 8,500 private pangolins, the majority of them most likely Sunda pangolin(Manis javanica), Indonesia’s only types. Sunda pangolins are noted as seriously threatened on the IUCN Red List and, like all pangolin types, prohibited from worldwide trade under Appendix 1 of the CITES Convention. They’re likewise a safeguarded types under Indonesia’s 1990 Conservation Lawwhich brings an optimal sentence of 15 years in jail plus a fine of approximately 5 billion rupiah ($276,900) for unlawful belongings, transportation or trade.

The need for pangolin scales utilized in standard medications, mostly in Vietnam and China, continues to press pangolin types throughout Asia and Africa towards termination, regardless of a absence of scientific proof that their scales have any unique medical worth.

Richard Moore, senior advisor at IAR Indonesia Foundation (YIARI), who is not associated with the case, stated criminal charges are necessary for holding wrongdoers responsible and discouraging future offenses. Jail sentences and fines do not fix the damage triggered to nature, he stated.

“The pangolins eliminated can not be revived,” Moore composed in an e-mail to Mongabay. “Requiring those accountable to support the security and healing of staying populations and environments makes responsibility more carefully show the damage triggered.”

Aromas Foundation’s claim is based upon existing civil and ecological liability laws, particularly crime arrangements under Article 1365 of the Indonesian Civil Code, and the Environmental Protection and Management (EPM) Law 32 of 2009Bringing the claim in the civil courts allows SCENTS Foundation to represent the general public interest and look for corrective justice, paths beyond the scope of traditional criminal procedures.

Sunda pangolin (Manis javanicain Indonesia, a types noted as seriously threatened and prohibited from worldwide trade under Appredix I of CITES. Image by © Farras Dary Firdaus Hussain through iNaturalist (CC BY-NC 4.0.The civil case is likewise totally unique from the continuous criminal cases versus the supposed culprits linked in the seizure, states Jacob Phelps, a senior speaker at Lancaster University in the U.K. and co-executive director of Conservation Litigation, an ecological NGO supporting SCENTS Foundation and other preservation plaintiffs around the globe.

“You can be discovered not guilty of a crime however still responsible for a civil offense, due to the fact that the concerns of evidence are various,”Phelps stated. The civil case can continue separately of the criminal cases. Even if the criminal cases drag out for months or years, the civil case does not depend upon their decisions.

According to Phelps, the remedy-based lawsuits utilized in this civil case is lawfully possible in numerous nations, consisting of Indonesia. It’s hardly ever utilized in wildlife criminal activity cases. These arrangements exist in numerous locations, however aren’t being utilized,” he stated.”It’s an execution space that is actually shockingly methodical. ”

Their underuse in wildlife criminal offense contexts is partially due to an absence of awareness about how to utilize the law in this method, Phelps stated, and partially due to the fact that ecological laws such as Indonesia’s EPM hardly ever include particular standards on what makes up ecological damage and what the suitable treatments ought to be. While civil laws in numerous jurisdictions describe how payment ought to be computed for claims worrying injury or home damage, there are seldom set treatments for ecological treatments. This implies complainants in ecological cases need to deal with a case-by-case basis to specify defensible, clinically robust solutions for wildlife criminal activities.

Pangolin scales taken from presumed smugglers in a different seizure in Medan in November 2024. Image by AP Photo/ Binsar Bakkara.

Precedent in Indonesia

Phelps stated the SCENTS Foundation case is just the 2nd suit he understands of in Indonesia where an NGO has actually tried to utilize ecological liability laws to look for treatments as an outcome of prohibited wildlife trade.

The very first case was submitted in 2021 by the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) versus a zoo in North Sumatra that was unlawfully keeping secured types, consisting of Sumatran orangutans (Pongo abeliigibbons and Komodo dragons (Varanus komodoensis. Walhi asked for the zoo spend for the long-lasting rehab of the orangutans, fund primate tracking and a preservation education program and make a public apology. The district court dismissed the case.

Phelps stated beneficial lessons can be gained from the North Sumatra case, such as the significance of ecological proficiency amongst the judiciary. “In Indonesia, choices are made by a panel of 3 judges, and in any ecological case, there should constantly be at least one judge who has actually ecological accreditation provided by the Supreme Court,” he stated. “In backwoods, there’s typically inadequate licensed judges to have that, however in Jakarta, there will be no reason. The judges are under higher analysis.”

Fragrances Foundation has actually officially asked for a judge with ecological accreditation rest on the case panel, which has actually been approved by the court.

“These indications are rather motivating, although it does not ensure the result ,” Phalita Gatra, a biodiversity law expert at the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law (ICEL), who is not associated with the case, informed Mongabay in an interview. We hope the court will look thoroughly at the proof and take the ecological damage and the proposed remediation steps seriously.”

To date, the East Jakarta District Court has actually held 4 hearings to put together the celebrations and address administrative matters. All offenders have actually been effectively summoned, although authorities are still pursuing one private whose location stays unidentified. A very first mediation hearing is set for Nov. 5. The mediation action is a standard operating procedure in all civil cases, providing the celebrations a chance to settle out of court, Phelps stated. If no settlement is reached, the case will continue to trial.

The misty forest hills of Gunung Halimun Salak National Park in Java, Indonesia. Picture by Mokhamad Edliadi/CIFOR through Flickr(CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

Causal links and clear strategies

Phelps stated that while making use of remedy-focused civil lawsuits is still uncommon for wildlife criminal activity cases, it’s significantly utilized to hold business to represent ecological damages, such as contamination, logging and forest fires.”What that indicates is that it’s now part of the general public and legal creativity, “he stated.

Success has actually been restricted, nevertheless, with an analysis of more than 320 civil ecological cases in Indonesia discovering that one-third of cases submitted by people and NGOs were dismissed on procedural premises, and simply one in 26 class action fits prospered in between 2010 and 2022.

Phelps stated especially important lessons can be drawn from the Ministry of Environment’s 2012 suit versus palm oil business PT Kalista Alam, in which the business was bought to pay $25 million to bring back environments harmed by prohibited cleaning of peatland forests. It took more than a years for the business to pay its very first installation of the fine. “Part of the factor is they didn’t set out a timeline with clear actions, “Phelps stated.

By contrast, Phelps stated, the SCENTS Foundation claim consists of a particular repair prepare for the funds.” If the cash’s recuperated, we currently have a timeline and actions and federal government authorities who are all set and ready to do things on the ground for preservation. ”

ICEL expert Gatra stated a significant obstacle will be lawfully showing the link in between the loss of the pangolins and the level of damage responsible culprits must spend for, keeping in mind the SCENTS Foundation case is a welcome chance to check out the scope of the law for correcting wildlife criminal activities.”It might demonstrate how civil and criminal cases can interact to hold individuals responsible liable and assist fix ecological damage,”she stated.

Aromas Foundation Director Erawan stated the civil case thinks about numerous various measurements of ecological damage set off by the loss of many people. The losses threaten the survival of Sunda pangolins as a types, he stated, by lowering hereditary variety and reproductive practicality. It likewise reduces an essential cultural resource and eliminates their important community functions as crucial soil and nutrient cyclers.

A security personnel stands near shipping containers at IPC Container Terminal at Tanjung Priok Port in Jakarta, Indonesia in 2025. The delivery of more than 3 metric lots of pangolin scales was taken at this port in February 2026. Image by AP Photo / Achmad Ibrahim.

Business responsibility

Another element that makes the claim of worldwide significance is its concentrate on business responsibility, Phelps stated. The case names 3 business, whose responsibility will require to be shown in court: an import-export business; a customs-clearance company; and a storage facility business.

Historically, business in Indonesia have actually hardly ever been charged with wildlife criminal offenses, due to the fact that before 2024 Indonesia’s preservation law might just be used to people.

Moore from YIARI stated the addition of business in the SCENTS Foundation civil suit is substantial because it extends responsibility beyond those straight dealing with illegal deliveries to business that might have made money from the prohibited trade. “Large-scale trafficking depends upon storage, transportation, export services and monetary networks,” he stated.

A business is not instantly accountable since its services were utilized for an unlawful delivery, Moore stated. “Evidence should develop its participation and the legal premises for duty by tracing business choices, records and monetary deals.”

For Phelps, the case is a chance to check out the scope of what the law can accomplish. Law is an iterative procedure, he stated, with each brand-new case eventually assisting enhance the legal neighborhood’s understanding of how to use existing laws and make the connections in between ecological losses, liability and solutions. “One of our biggest barriers is that individuals do not do what they do not understand is possible,” he stated.

Whether the case succeeds or not, Phelps stated he hopes it sends out a clear message to NGOs and civil society that it’s possible to take legal action in the general public interest and accomplish significant modification.