83 



Sustainable Harvesting is Goal Worth Pursuing Cautiously 



If importation of wild birds is to continue, it must be done on a sustainable basis, that is it 

 must be implemented in such a way that it does not pose threats to wild populations. Important 

 biological information is needede to determine what levels of harvest would be sustainable 

 (Beissinger and Bucher 1992). This information has not been gathered for any species in the 

 trade, most export quotas are not based on scientific data and quotas for most countries need to 

 be lowered drastically. Biological data suggest that there is a good potential to harvest some 

 parrots in a sustainable manner through habitat management operations (Beissinger and Bucher 

 1992), although no "ranching" projects with free-flying birds have been attempted to date. 

 Careful evaluations of the biological, social, and economic problems of implementing harvest 

 programs must be conducted. 



When implemented properly and conservatively, however, sustainable harvesting could 

 provide advantages for conservationists, aviculturists, the pet industry, and local peoples . 

 Conservationists could gain by having healthy populations of wild parrots, and by transmitting 

 economic value to habitats to help conserve them in their natural states. For example, if parrots 

 can be sustainably harvested from tropical rain forests, this would provide another commodity 

 which might help to inake extractive reserves more economically valuable than forest land 

 cleared for timber harvest or cattle production. Sustained harvesting of many bird species will 

 require that substantial areas of land be maintained as mature forest. Aviculture and the pet 

 industry would have a steady but small inflow of legally imported birds already conditioned to 

 captivity. Finally, the profits from these programs could be directed to the local people in need 

 of ways to support themselves, and the economy of nations that are trying to develop. Currently, 

 local people receive hardly any firumcial benefit compared to the importers who have become 

 wealthy from this trade. 



Realizing the benefits of trade requires a degree of control over harvesting that is 

 difficult arui expensive to achieve. Solving the biological problems associated with sustained 

 harvest of birds may be easier than solving some of the sociaJ and political problems. Particular 

 problems for sustainable harvesting programs are posed by the illegal laundering of birds by 

 personnel in these programs, poaching of birds by people outside of these program, the 

 development of reliable marking systems to identify legal birds, and the temptation to 

 overharvest to make more profit. Without strong controls over harvesting programs, attempts at 

 sustained harvesting coidd increase conservation problems rather than solve them. 



The Exotic Wild Bird Conservation Act has good provisions to encourage and control 

 sustainable use. But before strong hopes are placed in sustained harvesting as a conservation 

 strategy, several demonstration projects must be conducted to determine the feasibility and scale 

 of harvesting. Experimental programs of sustained harvesting could be run to find solutions to 

 the problems of illegal laundering of birds, poaching, reliable marking systems, and 

 overharvesting. In the face of pressures from current unsustainable harvesting, most attempts at 

 sustainable harvesting are likely to fail. Obtaining the biological and sociological data to 

 conduct a sustainable trade will require investments of time and money, but trade should not 

 have been allowed in the first place without this information. 



Improvements Needed To the Act 



It is premature to suggest many improvements to an act which is so recent that many of 

 its rules and regulations have yet to be promulgated. However, there are two suggestions that we 



