99 



In the remainder of fliis policy statement, APC presents general principles that should 

 guide die harvest and trade of birds, discusses the potential benefits and difficulties of enacting 

 sustainable use of birds, and presents a vision of how the trade could be re-created for both 

 commercial and conservation purposes. 



PRINCIPLES FOR GUIDEMG THE SUSTAINABLE HARVEST AND TRADE OF BIRDS 



APC strongly advocates the use of seven general principles develop)ed by The American 

 Ornithologists' Union to guide trade in birds. The seven principles focus primarily on the 

 in^lications for conserving wild bird populations in the countries of origin as well as in 

 importing countries. APC's approach to trade and sustainable use of parrots is based on these 

 principles: 



1. The harvest and imponation of live birds should be sustainable, and should not pose risks 

 for wild populations of species that are harvested There is no justification for commercial 

 endeavors to result in the extinction in the wild of a species, as has been the case for several 

 parrots as the trade is currently practiced. Although CITES provides some protection for a small 

 set of species listed in its Appendix I, even some of these have been imported in significant 

 numbers relative to wild population sizes (e.g., the Hyacinth Macaw). If trade in wild birds is 

 to continue, it must be done on a sustainable basis. In other words, trade must be implemented 

 in such a way that it does not pose threats to wild populations. Export quotas for some countries 

 need to be lowered drastically. Important biological information is needed to determine what 

 levels of harvest would be sustainable. This information has not been gathered for any species 

 in the trade. Biological data suggest that there is a potential to harvest some parrots in a 

 sustainable manner through the use of nest boxes to increase productivity, although no "ranching" 

 projects with fi-ee-flying birds have been attempted to date. Because most parrots have low 

 reproductive potential and long life spans, they are susceptible to overbarvesting and conservative 

 approaches to harvesting should be used. These include harvesting only nestlings and not adults, 

 and harvesting primarily nestlings that are produced in excess of natural productivity as a result 

 of management programs. Maximizing nestling harvest levels requires managing to maximize 

 the number of pairs of birds nesting, which in theory would result in robust populations close to 

 the carrying capacity of the environment However, careful evaluations of the biological, social 

 and economic problems of ranching programs must be conducted before such programs are 

 encouraged or discouraged. Finally, there is no reason that any of the 1 100 bird species listed 

 by lUCN as threatened with extinction should be traded for commercial purposes. 



2. The harvest and importation of live birds should not pose significant risks of disease 

 transmission to native species, poultry, or other birds held for legitimate purposes such as 

 exhibition or scientific study. Quarantine regulations around the world are, for the most part, 

 unlikely to stop the importation of diseases that potentially threaten native species and poultry. 

 For example, all birds imported to the United States are held for 30 days of USDA-regulated 

 quarantine and tested only for Exotic Newcastle Disease (WND). This period is too brief to 

 aUow the detection of other slow acting pathogens, many of which have recently been imported 

 into collections of captive birds and potentially could be transferred to native species. 

 Difficulties with this one disease alone, which caused a massive loss to the U.S. poultry industry 

 in 1972 and continues to strike periodically since then, suggests that enormous economic losses 



