In recognition of his groundbreaking work in pangolin conservation, Charles Emogor, an innovative researcher, has been honoured with the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) Animal Action Award. The award was presented during a ceremony at BAFTA in London.
At just 29 years old, Charles, a PhD student at Cambridge, has been devoted to studying the threats facing pangolins since 2019, with a focus on the critically endangered white-bellied species in Nigeria.
In 2020, he founded “Pangolino,” a global network of specialists dedicated to reversing the decline of the world’s most trafficked mammal. Charles’ passion for pangolins began in childhood when he first encountered the unique creature on television. Decades later, that early fascination grew into a life mission to protect the species from extinction.
“Pangolins have been a childhood fascination for me,” Charles explains. “Growing up in southeast Nigeria in a small community,I would see lots of animals around my neighbourhood, bBut when I saw a pangolin on TV for the first time, I was intrigued – it looked so different to anything I’d seen before. Later, I learned that pangolins were the most trafficked animal in the world.”
Charles has since concentrated much of his work on behaviour change strategies within Nigeria, focusing on the white-bellied pangolin. He works closely with local communities, including poachers, school children, and regional chiefs, adopting a grassroots approach. His strategy involves co-developing by-laws with communities to prohibit pangolin poaching, as he believes meaningful change must come from the ground up.
One of Charles’ major breakthroughs came from his engagement with poachers. While pangolin hunting is illegal and widely believed to be driven by the demand for their scales, Charles’ research revealed that the primary motivation is actually for their meat, with over 70% of the discarded scales being a by-product.
Upon receiving the IFAW award, Charles shared his initial disbelief: “I was first skeptical to get this news that I had won this award from IFAW, thinking I was being scammed. This is such a huge award, so in realizing that it is real, I felt humbled. I hope that it will help raise awareness of the plight of the pangolin.”
Lionel Hachemin, Programme Manager for Wildlife Crime at IFAW, praised Charles’ community-led conservation efforts, saying, “Charles’ work has already helped the conservation community understand more about this species, and I have no doubt he will continue to do great things – he is a very deserving winner of IFAW’s Animal Action Award.”
In addition to his work with pangolins, Charles is a 2021 National Geographic Explorer and holds an MSc in Biodiversity Conservation from the University of Oxford. He is also an active member of the IUCN SSC Pangolin Specialist Group.
