Bird smuggling hard to curb: NGO

Bird smuggling hard to curb: NGO

Theresia Sufa, Bogor

A wildlife watchdog has revealed that bird smuggling is the
second largest crime in the country after drug trafficking in
terms of the number of cases.

Executive of the Bogor-based Network Development Birdlife
Indonesia Yusup Cahyadin told The Jakarta Post on Monday the most
popular birds are cockatoos and parrots, which are smuggled
overseas from Tobelo Halmahera district, North Maluku.

"The birds are taken directly off the island by fishing boats
from Singapore and the Philippines. The Eastern Naval Fleet has
been unable to curb the crime, maybe because their surveillance
area is too vast," he said.

Yusup, who has been working in the island district for many
years, further said that locals captured the birds by order from
their natural habitat in the forest.

"In return, the locals are paid with soap or liquors."

A cockatoo sells for Rp 15,000 (US$1.67) to Rp 20,000 on the
domestic market, but, according to Yusup, it can go for up to
$1,000 in foreign markets.

Yusup said some birds were smuggled as air cargo, but this
method was more costly because the birds have to be rendered
unconscious before they are each packed in a bottle.

It is suspected that organized smuggling networks in Singapore
and the Philippines prepare the appropriate documents to export
the birds to destination markets in European countries, and the
government has been trying to enlist the neighboring countries'
participation in the battle against the smuggling of protected
wildlife.

Next month, the Directorate for Conservation and Biodiversity
of the office of the State Minister of the Environment will hold
a bilateral dialog on bird smuggling with the Filipino government
and NGOs.

There are 14 types of protected cockatoos, including the great
sulfur-crested cockatoo (Cacatua galleria) and sulfur-crested
cockatoo (Cacatua sulphurea), white-colored goffin (Cacatua
goffini) and salmon-crested cockatoo (Cacatua molucensis), all of
which are indigenous to the islands of eastern Indonesia,
including Maluku.

Protected parrot species include red-and-blue lorry (Eos
histrio), yellow-backed lorry (Lorius eclectus/roratus), black-
capped lorry (Lorius lory) and black-lored parrot (Tanygnathus
Sumatranus).

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species
(CITES) of Wild Flora and Fauna stipulates that protected avian
species can be traded only if they originated from breeding
facilities, not directly from nature.

While Law No. 5/1999 on conservation of biodiversity and
ecosystem, traders and owners of protected animals face up to
five years in jail and/or a Rp 100 million (US$11,200) fine, the
law has not been stringently enforced, and endangered bird and
animal species can be seen on display openly at street-side
markets in the capital and other major cities.