Here’s how pangolin hunting is happening under officials’ watch in the Philippines

Our colleagues at Rappler in the Philippines released their two-part series this week on poaching in Palawan. We strongly encourage you to read their work. It was the product of weeks of painstaking reporting.

Its two parts look at two dilemmas:

Part 1: How local politicians can’t clamp down on poaching because they’d risk losing the support of their communities: “If you report them to authorities and they belong to a big family, expect [that] you can’t have their votes come elections.”

Part 2: How economic growth plans are at odds with wildlife preservation: “We are not able to integrate wildlife conservation into our overall development plan.”