Conservationists applaud EU decision to ban permanently wild bird trade

12-01-2007

The EU Commission has announced that the ban on imports of birds caught in the wild is to be made permanent throughout the European Union later this year.

The move comes after a temporary ban was imposed within the EU in October 2005, after birds in a UK quarantine centre were found to have avian influenza.

“We fully applaud the decision made by the EU Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health.” said Dr Clairie Papazoglou, Head of European Division at BirdLife International. “Banning the imports of birds caught in the wild is great news for bird conservation, even though the ruling has been made to limit the spread of disease, and not to conserve species. Only if laws are made on the basis of conservation can we have more confidence in protecting those species that are threatened by trade.”

The ban is to take effect from the 1 July 2007.

BirdLife/CCF

Large numbers of African Grey Parrots are captured for trade.
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“We fully applaud the decision made by the EU Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health.” —Dr Clairie Papazoglou, Head of European Division, BirdLife International.

The EU’s decision will heavily impact the illegal or unsustainable trade in wild birds that has decimated many species across the world.

Trapping for the international bird trade has been identified as a contributory factor in the threat status of one in twenty threatened and near-threatened bird species, with parrot species being particularly affected. Some are close to extinction as a result, such as the Yellow-crested Cockatoo Cacatua sulphurea of East Timor and Indonesia; others are already Extinct in the Wild such as the Spix's Macaw Cyanopsitta spixii of Brazil. Examples of species which continue to be threatened by legal and illegal exploitation for the bird trade include the Red Siskin Carduelis cucullata in northern South America, Java Sparrow Padda oryzivora of Indonesia and the African Grey Parrot Psittacus erithacus.

The news has been applauded by BirdLife Partners across Europe, many of whom have been campaigning against trade in wild birds for up to 20 years.