It was a serious meeting, with a lot of topics and a very tight and full agenda.

On the whole, the conference focused on the protection of African wildlife, upgraded the protection level of some animals, and also issued a 'Big Five' and 'Big Five' wildlife protection regulations.

The top five African animals that are persecuted by legal trade were not the five major animals in Africa in the traditional sense, namely elephants, rhinos, hippos and buffaloes, but the Nile crocodile, South African fur seal, Hartmann mountain zebra, African elephant and giraffe.

The five small ones refer to the African ball python, the African gray parrot, the king scorpion, the leopard tortoise and the steppe monitor lizard.

These animals are persecuted by the legal trade, because many of the animals that are traded are said to be farmed, not wild animals, but in fact they are only kept in artificial pens, and they are still caught from the wild or the young are harvested from the wild to be cultivated in captivity.

Little did Yang know that legal trade is now more damaging to wildlife than poaching.

For example, Nile crocodiles are allowed to be transported and sold normally, and their skins are the raw materials for high-end shoes and bags in Europe and the United States, and more than 200,000 crocodile skins have been exported from Africa every year for the past four years.

There are also South African fur seals, which Namibia has an annual hunt that involves rounding up, batting and even skinning alive at this time of year to meet the fashion industry's demand for fur.

The Washington Convention, the international regulation governing illegal wildlife trade, was held at the same time, and Yang Shubao was in charge of observing and supervising the event.

All eight of the world's pangolin species have been upgraded to a level of complete ban on international trade.

There was a hiccup at the meeting, where eight pangolins were voted on separately and seven of them, including the South African pangolins, were unanimously approved with no objections, but when it came to the Malay pangolins, there was a dispute.

Indonesia, the country that houses the Malayan pangolin's habitat, refused to raise the protection level, and they voted against it.

But they were the only ones who voted against, with Southeast Asian countries including China, Vietnam, South Korea, and the Malayan pangolin also being upgraded.

China, Japan, and South Korea were the most important players in this vote, because Indonesia is the exporter, and as long as no country is willing to accept their pangolins, the deal will be nullified.

A business will always require at least two characters, one to sell and one to buy.

Now, judging from the conference, the business chain of Malay pangolin sales has been cut off.

A good thing.

The first time Yang Shubao participated in this kind of meeting, he initially thought that the participants were all volunteers and members of non-governmental protection organizations, but when he introduced the meeting, he realized that all the people who could participate in the meeting were bigwigs.

This is not a non-governmental meeting, this is an official meeting, and the official representatives of each country are present, and the new or upgraded protection regulations signed are also legally binding.

At first, he saw that the venue and accommodation of the conference were just a three-star hotel, and thought it was a pheasant conference, but now he knows that the more high-level the animal protection conference, the more ordinary the meeting site.

The conference lasted for three days, and after the end of the meeting, Yang Shubao talked with the stationmaster Merlin and prepared to go back, but when he arrived at the door of the hotel, he found someone waiting for him.

Brian Kavin and Tony Van Nissel, two officials from the Dutch National Animal Protection Society.

The two of them showed a bright smile when they saw Yang Shubao, and beckoned together: "Mr. Yang, hello." ”

Yang Shubao nodded politely and said, "Hello, two gentlemen." ”

He continued to walk out, but Brian stopped him with a squirming twist, "Can I discuss something with you? We have something important to talk to you about." ”

Stationmaster Merlin understood, "I need to avoid it, right? No problem, Yang, I'll see you in the parking lot later." ”

Tony hurriedly stopped her and said, "Stationmaster Merlin, you don't need to leave here, we don't need to hide anything from you, in fact, we also need your help in this matter." ”

Yang Shubao said: "What's the matter? ”

Brian was embarrassed and said, "We need your help, we have a group of wild animals that need to find a suitable place to release them back into the wild. ”

Yang Shubao subconsciously asked, "Is it a pangolin?"

Brian sneered, "Yes, South African pangolins, a bunch of very cute little guys. ”

Yang Shubao understood why they were embarrassed.

On the day of the meeting, there was a conflict between the two sides, and then the pangolin, a wild animal, is not easy to rescue, such as monkeys and leopards, these can be released into the wild, pangolins are not good, pangolins must enter a specific habitat.

This has to do with their diet, they live in grassland areas, they hate deserts and rainforests, but they like to eat ants, which is the problem: where are there more ants and termites?

Despite the sheer size of the African savannah, not every grassland has enough ants to starve to death if you put pangolins in an area where there are no large numbers of ants.

Yang Shubao asked, "How many pangolins are you going to release into the wild?"

Brian sighed and said, "Eighteen." ”

Yang Shubao was quite surprised: "So many?"

Eighteen pangolins are not a small number, no wonder Brian and Tony have a headache, this is not a simple eighteen small animals, but eighteen termite extermination machines, once the number of ants is not enough, they will become eighteen corpses.

Brian said frustratedly: "Actually, there are twenty of them, and we contacted customs to find a smuggling boat, which is one of the animals found in the boat, and two other pangolins have died." ”

Tony is also frustrated: "By law, we can't bring them back to the Netherlands, and in fact the Netherlands are not suitable for pangolins, so they'd better stay in Africa, but we can't find a suitable place to breed." ”

Stationmaster Merlin nodded, "You better be careful when you release them back into the wild, South Africans also like to eat pangolins, and if they catch them, they will become sculpture materials and food." ”

Pangolin pieces can be carved into works of art, and some indigenous tribes have a tradition of using pangolin pieces as amulets to ward off evil spirits.

"Yes, so we need help, and we know what you two are doing, so we can only ask for your help," Tony said. ”

Brian rubbed his hands awkwardly and glanced at Yang Shubao, and said in a low voice: "I was really disrespectful two days ago, I hope you can forgive me, Mr. Yang, I always can't control my mouth." ”

Yang Shubao interrupted him and said, "Take these pangolins to my territory, but I'm not sure if I can accommodate them, there are aardvarks and other anteaters on my territory, and there are not enough ants on the grassland." ”