Bali Identified as Primary Route for Illegal Wildlife Trade

Flight Protecting Indonesia’s Birds has revealed that Bali is a primary route for illegal wildlife trade, especially wild birds. The island is even classified as a high-risk category for illegal wildlife trafficking. This was disclosed by Flight Executive Director Marison Guciano during a discussion titled ‘Bali: Between a Main Route and Black Market for Illegal Wildlife Trade’ at Kubu Kopi, Denpasar, on Monday (15/6/2026). Flight is an organisation focused on eradicating the illegal wild bird trade in Indonesia. “(Bali) is the main route for illegal wildlife trade, particularly wild birds from West Nusa Tenggara heading to Java,” Marison said. “Besides being a main route, Bali is also a source of illegally traded birds and a fairly significant market,” he added. According to Marison, interest and hobbyist demand for songbirds in Bali is high. He assessed that this could threaten the populations of wild birds on the Island of the Gods. “Because the easiest and cheapest way to obtain birds is by taking them from the wild, compared to captive breeding which requires time and money,” Marison explained. Marison stressed that the government and relevant authorities need to address this issue in order to conserve Bali’s wildlife. He also encouraged wildlife protection efforts in Bali to utilise customary law instruments. “Moreover, in the last five months, wild bird seizure data in Bali is the highest in Indonesia. There were more than 10,000 wild birds seized by authorities, and these birds were taken illegally from the wild,” Marison stated. “Because Bali is the main route for the massive scale of illegal trade in wild birds or wildlife, this will also trigger the vulnerability of potential zoonotic diseases,” he added.