BEIJING — China has upgraded the protection of pangolins to the highest level due to the species being threatened in the wild, the National Forestry and Grassland Administration said on June 5.

This indicates that the Chinese pangolins, which are naturally distributed in China, and the Malayan pangolins as well as the Indian pangolins, which were once distributed across China according to records, will be strictly protected.

The country has two levels for the protection of wildlife under special State protection, according to the wildlife protection law. Before this upgrade, pangolins were under class-two State protection.

The Chinese pangolins were once widely distributed in 17 provincial regions to the south of the Yangtze River on the mainland, but were found in only 11 provinces, according to the first national survey of terrestrial wildlife resources released in 2003.

Due to over-hunting and habitat destruction in the past, the pangolin population declined to about 64,000, according to the survey.

China issued a ban on pangolin hunting in 2007, and has suspended all commercial imports of pangolin and its products since 2018.