African Grey Parrot going to be classified as CITES I species

May 9th, 2016 | by LubosTomiska
African Grey Parrot going to be classified as CITES I species
Legislation
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African Grey Parrot breeders from the whole world will probably face to change in legislation. African country Gabun proposed to move African Grey Parrots from Appendix II of CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) to Appendix I. This idea was supported by other five African countries and also European Union. Such change would mean to register all individuals living in captivity in countries which are part of CITES convention. This information was confirmed by Silva Ucova from the Czech Agency for Nature Conservation and Landscape Protection.

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Autumnal CITES conference will decide

Final decision about reclassification of the African Grey Parrot should be taken on the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES (CoP17) in Johannesburg. “Proposal to reclassify Psittacus erithacus from Appendix II to Appendix I is one of the things which are going to be discussed there. It has been suggested to reclassify all individuals living in captivity, not just in some countries,” said Ucova for website Ararauna.cz.

“Czech Republic supported this idea because of significant impact of illegal trade on the wild population,” she added. This change in legislation should apply also to Timneh Grey Parrot (Psittacus timneh).

Most probably United States are also going to support this reclassification. “If this proposal is approved then all changes in CITES law become effective in 90 days after the conference,” said Ucova. It means that all owners of African Grey Parrot should register their birds then.

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https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b7/Psittacus_erithacus_-flying-8a.jpg/640px-Psittacus_erithacus_-flying-8a.jpg

Wild African Grey Parrot (c) Robert01.This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Germany license.

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It is not the first time of African Grey Parrot compulsory registration

If African Grey Parrot is classified in Appendix I then all individuals need to have a closed ring or microchip. “Every individual living in countries which are part of CITES convention would have to be registered. However, some older birds had been already registered in the past and therefore breeders can use the old documents,” said Ucova. Up to the end of 2009 European breeders of African Grey Parrot had to register their birds. This obligation was then cancelled because of high number of these birds in captivity.

“If proposal is approved CITES authorities will inform breeders about this change immediately so they can register their birds in lawful term,” said Ucova.

Why should be this species classified in Appendix I? According to CITES authorities, current classification in Appendix II does not provide sufficient protection of this species from the illegal trade. Because of that, wild populations are at the edge of extinction in many African countries. Wild caught individuals are also being transported to European Union.

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Title photo: (c) L.Miguel Bugallo Sánchez. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled GNU Free Documentation License.

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