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CITES Parties decide to end commercial trade in African grey parrots

Xinhua, October 3, 2016 Adjust font size:

Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) on Sunday decided to end commercial trade in African grey parrots.

Delegates attending CITES' 17th Conference of Parties (CoP17) voted decisively to uplist African grey parrots to (endangered) Appendix I, thus ending their international commercial trade.

The proposal was submitted by five range states -- Gabon, Nigeria, Guinea-Bissau, Angola and Togo, with co-sponsorship by Chad, Senegal, USA and the EU. It was agreed by 95 votes in support, 35 votes against and five abstentions.

"An Appendix I listing by CITES will immediately improve the welfare and conservation of African greys by protecting them from overexploitation from uncontrolled and illegal trade, and requiring countries to support all efforts to increase protections for the parrots. This is a great day for a species under threat simply because of their popularity as a pet bird," said Kelvin Alie, Director of International Fund for Animal Welfare's (IFAW's) Wildlife Trade Program.

Alie said the live pet trade, and habitat destruction and fragmentation had decimated African grey parrot populations in the wild.

African grey parrots are highly prized as pets due to their highly vocal nature and their ability to learn and mimic human language.

These traits have made the parrots a target for traders, and they are considered the third most internationally-traded, wild-harvested bird species with their populations in declines in 14 of 18 range countries.

The parrots were listed on CITES Appendix II in 1981 due to the potential impact of trade on its population at the time.

Since then over-harvesting arising from poor quota system, poor management and regulation of trade, fraudulent permitting and a high death rate of the birds, has decimated populations.

Legal trade data estimates that over 1.3 million African grey parrots were exported from range states between 1975 and 2013, with an average of 40 to 60 percent dying due to deplorable transit and transport conditions. Enditem