Beyond their individual welfare, pangolins play significant ecological roles in soil health and insect control, making their conservation important for ecosystem welfare broadly.
Pangolin conservation has welfare significance both at the individual level — millions of animals suffering through the trafficking trade — and at the broader ecosystem level, where their disappearance would alter soil health and insect dynamics that affect many other species. The difficulty of studying wild pangolins has left many basic welfare questions unanswered — their stress responses in captivity are severe and mortality rates are extremely high. Supporting the demand reduction campaigns that are the most effective intervention for pangolin conservation also protects the ecosystems they shape.