The container at Jakarta’s Tanjung Priok Port was supposed to hold sea cucumbers and instant noodles. When customs officers opened it in February 2026, they found 3,053 kilograms of dried pangolin scales bound for Cambodia—one of Indonesia’s largest seizures of the illegal trade in recent years.
Now an Indonesian conservation group is asking a court to make those accused of trafficking pay for damage to nature, not just face criminal charges. The case could offer another way to hold wildlife traffickers accountable: require them to help repair the ecosystems harmed by their actions.
The SCENTS Foundation filed its civil lawsuit on Sept. 2 at the East Jakarta District Court, represented by Jakarta law firm NET Attorney. It names seven defendants: four people also facing criminal charges and three companies alleged to have helped ship and store the scales. The suit is proceeding alongside the state-led criminal case. The court has summoned all but one of the individual defendants; that person remains wanted by police. The first mediation hearing is set for Nov. 5. If the sides do not reach a settlement, the case will go to trial.
SCENTS is seeking about $136,500 to fund three measures. The defendants would pay to restore 15 hectares of forest and monitor pangolins in Gunung Halimun Salak National Park in West Java, as well as support a public education campaign about wildlife trafficking. Scientific advisers to the case estimate that the seized scales may have come from more than 8,500 pangolins, most likely Sunda pangolins, the only pangolin species in Indonesia.
Sunda pangolins are listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List, a global record of species’ risk of extinction. International trade in all pangolin species is banned under the CITES convention. Indonesia also protects pangolins under its 1990 Conservation Law, which allows a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison and a fine of up to 5 billion rupiah, or about $276,900, for illegal possession, transport or trade.
Yet criminal penalties do not restore habitat or help surviving animals. Richard Moore, a senior adviser at IAR Indonesia Foundation who is not involved in the case, said prison and fines matter, but they cannot repair the harm to nature. “Requiring those responsible to support the protection and recovery of remaining populations and ecosystems makes accountability more closely reflect the harm caused,” he wrote.
SCENTS director Ma’ruf Erawan said the seized scales represented far more than a large shipment. “Behind those scales were thousands of pangolins removed from the wild, together with ecological functions and the values we all hold for Indonesian nature,” he said.
The lawsuit relies on civil and environmental liability laws, which experts say can work alongside criminal prosecutions. If the claim succeeds, it could help shift wildlife cases toward remedies that support recovery on the ground. The court’s next step is mediation; whether the defendants agree to pay will determine if the case moves on to trial.