Pangolin Conservation in Eswatini: Threats and Hope

Eswatini is one of Africa's smallest and most ecologically rich kingdoms, yet the fate of its Temminck's ground pangolin (Smutsia temminckii) remains largely undocumented. Wedged between South Africa and Mozambique, this landlocked nation sits at the crossroads of southern Africa's most active wildlife trafficking corridors. Understanding what is at stake for pangolins here matters far beyond its modest borders.

A Kingdom of Remarkable Biodiversity

Covering just 17,364 square kilometres, Eswatini packs a striking density of species into its compact geography. The country spans four distinct ecological zones: highveld, middleveld, lowveld, and the Lubombo plateau. This range of altitude and rainfall supports an exceptional variety of habitats, from montane grasslands above 1,800 metres to semi-arid bushveld scrub in the lowveld, where temperatures routinely exceed 40 degrees Celsius in summer. Per square kilometre, Eswatini ranks among the most biodiverse countries on the continent.

Since 2018, the former Kingdom of Swaziland has been officially known as the Kingdom of Eswatini, following a proclamation by King Mswati III, Africa's last absolute monarch. The king's personal investment in conservation has historically benefited megafauna: white rhinoceros and elephant populations have been protected with notable vigour under royal decree. Pangolins, however, have not yet attracted the same level of attention at the national policy level, despite being the world's most trafficked wild mammal.

The Temminck's ground pangolin is the species historically present in Eswatini, occupying the bushveld and lowveld areas where termite mounds and ant colonies provide year-round foraging. Sightings have been recorded in and around Hlane Royal National Park, though comprehensive survey data remains absent from the published scientific literature. No verified national population estimate exists for Eswatini's pangolins, a gap that conservation planners acknowledge as a significant barrier to targeted action.

Protected Areas and the Role of Big Game Parks

The primary conservation infrastructure in Eswatini is managed by Big Game Parks (BGP), a non-profit organisation operating under royal patronage. BGP oversees three key protected areas, each with a distinct mandate.

Hlane Royal National Park is the largest, covering approximately 30,000 hectares of lowveld bushveld in the northeast of the country. It supports populations of white rhino, elephant, lion, and a wide range of antelope species. The park's low-lying terrain and dense acacia thicket represent suitable pangolin habitat, and rangers have reported occasional ground pangolin encounters within its boundaries over the years. Given the species' nocturnal habits and naturally low densities, reliable detection is challenging without dedicated survey methods such as camera traps or tracking dogs.

Mkhaya Game Reserve, smaller and more intensively managed, focuses on high-density conservation of rare and endangered species. Its black rhino breeding programme has drawn international recognition. While pangolin sightings at Mkhaya are not well documented, the reserve's management model demonstrates Eswatini's capacity for rigorous wildlife protection when species receive institutional priority.

Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary, situated near the capital Mbabane in the middleveld, is the oldest protected area in the country and functions primarily as an ecotourism destination. Day and night game drives, walking trails, and horse safaris draw large numbers of visitors, many of them crossing over from South Africa. Mlilwane's proximity to the urban corridor makes it a logical entry point for awareness programming around pangolin conservation.

Alongside BGP, the Eswatini Nature Trust, formerly known as the Swaziland National Trust Commission (SNTC), serves as the government statutory body responsible for managing the country's cultural and natural heritage. The SNTC administers its own network of smaller reserves and is the primary liaison with international conservation bodies and treaty obligations, including compliance with the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), under which the Temminck's ground pangolin has been listed on Appendix I since 2017, prohibiting all commercial international trade.

Threats: Snaring, Trafficking, and Economic Pressure

The principal threats facing pangolins in Eswatini mirror those across southern Africa, but the country's geography creates specific vulnerabilities that compound the danger.

Wire snaring is pervasive throughout communal land areas and is documented even within the buffer zones of protected areas. Snares are set primarily for bushmeat species such as impala, warthog, and duiker, but pangolins are non-selectively caught in these traps. Because pangolins curl into a defensive ball when threatened rather than fleeing, a snared individual has no secondary escape mechanism. Injuries from wire snares are frequently fatal, and pangolins that survive long enough to be found are often too compromised for successful rehabilitation.

Eswatini's geographic position between South Africa and Mozambique makes it a transit corridor for wildlife trafficking. Demand for pangolin scales and body parts is partly driven within South Africa by the traditional medicine trade, where sangomas and traditional healers incorporate pangolin derivatives in their practices. Once product reaches Mozambique, Indian Ocean port access opens supply chains to consumer markets in Southeast and East Asia. Eswatini's borders, many of which traverse remote terrain and are inadequately monitored, offer traffickers routes that avoid the more heavily patrolled entry points of its larger neighbours.

Rural Swati communities in the lowveld and communal areas face significant economic marginalisation. High unemployment and limited access to formal markets create conditions where the income from selling a live pangolin or its scales to a middleman can equal months of agricultural earnings. Addressing this economic dimension is widely regarded by conservation practitioners as essential to any durable reduction in pangolin poaching. Punitive enforcement alone, without livelihood alternatives, has not proved sufficient elsewhere in the region and is unlikely to succeed in Eswatini either.

Eswatini's domestic legal framework includes provisions relevant to pangolin protection under the Game Act and the Environment Management Act. However, enforcement capacity is uneven, and prosecution of pangolin-related offences remains rare in publicly available records. Alignment between these statutes and the obligations flowing from Eswatini's CITES Appendix I commitments requires ongoing attention from legislators and prosecutors alike.

Transboundary Collaboration and Regional Networks

One of Eswatini's most valuable conservation assets is its proximity to South Africa's more developed wildlife management and rehabilitation infrastructure. Two provincial agencies are particularly relevant: the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency (MTPA), which manages the lowveld parks and reserves immediately to Eswatini's west and north, and Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, the conservation authority of KwaZulu-Natal province bordering Eswatini to the south and west.

Both organisations have more extensive experience with pangolin monitoring, rehabilitation, and anti-poaching operations than currently exists within Eswatini. Shared borders mean that pangolins range across political lines without awareness of jurisdictional distinctions, and the same is unfortunately true of poaching networks. Joint intelligence sharing and coordinated ranger patrols along transboundary zones represent a practical mechanism for addressing trafficking routes before they become entrenched.

Specialist veterinary support for recovered pangolins in the broader region is available through facilities such as the Johannesburg Wildlife Veterinary Hospital, which has treated a significant number of pangolins confiscated from the illegal trade in South Africa. Eswatini, lacking dedicated rehabilitation capacity of its own, benefits from this network when live animals are recovered, provided that transfer logistics and coordination are in place.

Regional pangolin conservation networks operating across southern Africa have increasingly sought to include Eswatini stakeholders in data sharing, training, and advocacy. The absence of published population data for Eswatini represents a gap that collaborative research efforts, potentially structured as postgraduate studies through regional universities, could begin to address in the near term.

Ecotourism Potential and the Path Forward

Eswatini receives a substantial volume of tourism from South Africa, drawn by the country's cultural heritage, wildlife, and the relative affordability of cross-border visits. The ecotourism sector centred on BGP's parks has demonstrated that guided wildlife experiences can generate meaningful revenue for conservation.

South Africa's experience with pangolin night safaris offers a model worth examining. Several private reserves in Limpopo and the North West province have developed guided nocturnal pangolin encounters, with trained trackers using radio-telemetry on habituated individuals. These experiences generate premium per-night revenue and build strong conservation advocacy among participants. Eswatini's lowveld parks, particularly Hlane, could in principle develop a comparable offering, provided that a viable pangolin population can be confirmed through systematic survey work and that individual animals are not exposed to stress through unmanaged tourist pressure.

The royal conservation mandate that has driven Eswatini's rhino and elephant protection programmes represents an underutilised lever for pangolin advocacy. Were pangolins to receive explicit recognition within the national conservation agenda endorsed at the highest level, the downstream effects on law enforcement prioritisation, budget allocation, and public awareness could be substantial. Engagement with the Office of His Majesty and with BGP's senior leadership on this specific gap is a logical next step for regional conservation organisations working in the country.

Climate change adds a further dimension of uncertainty. The lowveld is already semi-arid and increasingly subject to drought. Seasonal fluctuations in termite and ant colony activity directly affect pangolin foraging range and body condition. As rainfall patterns shift, the distribution of suitable pangolin habitat within Eswatini may contract, making the integrity of existing protected areas even more critical as refugia.

Eswatini's pangolins occupy a quiet corner of the conservation literature, rarely mentioned in peer-reviewed papers and absent from most range-state analyses that address southern African populations. That invisibility is itself a problem. Species that lack data struggle to attract funding, and without funding, data remains elusive. Breaking that cycle in Eswatini will require deliberate effort from regional conservation bodies, government agencies, and the international community. The groundwork of protected area management, royal conservation interest, and cross-border partnerships already exists; what is needed is the application of that infrastructure specifically to Smutsia temminckii before the species slips further from the country's landscape.