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African Pangolin Working Group

Pangolins are the most trafficked and poached animal in the world.


Across Africa, these critically threatened mammals are hunted by international criminal networks. The African Pangolin Working Group (APWG) is on the front line—rescuing pangolins, rehabilitating them, and returning them safely to the wild.​

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Strengthening Law Enforcement Across Borders

APWG works to build expertise among law enforcement officers and the judiciary to ensure pangolin trafficking is treated as a serious, transnational organised crime. Through targeted training and workshops across South Africa and Southern Mozambique within the Great Limpopo

 

Transfrontier Conservation Area (GLTFCA), they empower:

  • police units

  • anti-poaching teams

  • prosecutors and magistrates

  • customs and border officials

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The goal:

  • Better investigation

  • Intervention

  • Adjudication

  • Prosecution of pangolin-related crimes.

APWG delivers specialised training for border post officials on surveillance, detection, and interception of pangolin trafficking. These programmes strengthen frontline enforcement and help prevent pangolins from being smuggled across the GLTFCA’s high-risk border zones.

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The organisation facilitates coordinated efforts between law enforcement units and judicial bodies. By improving collaboration, APWG enhances the government’s ability to detect, prevent, and prosecute pangolin-related crimes across South Africa and Southern Mozambique.

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Founders Nikki Wright and Alexis Kriel regularly present workshops to specialist police crime units, Green Scorpions, anti-poaching teams, prosecutors, magistrates, and customs authorities.


They also support law enforcement with affidavits, statements, and expert evidence used in court.

APWG’s work has contributed to more than 15 court cases in three years—including the first-ever jail sentence for a pangolin poacher in 2017. Convictions continue to rise because of their precedent-setting involvement.

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Experts Behind APWG

Nicci Wright

  • Wildlife rehabilitation specialist

  • Member of the IUCN Pangolin Specialist Group

  • Wildlife project manager at Humane Society International Africa

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Alexis Kriel

  • Member of the IUCN Pangolin Group

  • Certified member of the International Wildlife Rehabilitation Council

  • One of the few people globally with hands-on rehabilitation experience with three of the four African pangolin species, beginning her work in 2014 in the Central African Republic

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