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The AFA, WWF and PIJAC argue that not all individuals of species listed on Appendix 

 III are regulated by CITES, and contend that the scope of the Act's import prohibitions 

 for Appendix III species should be limited accordingly. However, all individuals of species 

 listed on Appendix III are subject to CITES controls, regardless of the country of origin. 

 All individuals of species included on Appendix III must be accompanied by a certificate 

 of origin at the time of import. 



Easing the current import prohibitions on Appendix III birds in the manner that the AFA, 

 PIJAC and WWF request would strip protections from hundreds of thousands of birds. 

 Species that are subject to high levels of trade would be excluded from the scope of the 

 Wild Bird Conservation Act. Between 1986 and 1989 more than 150,000 birds of species 

 listed on Appendix III were imported into the United States. The vast majority of these 

 birds were finches, which frequently suffer exceptionally high mortality during transport. 

 In 1989, more than 43,000 finches died during transport to the United States and 

 quarantine, and in March 1991, more than 10,000 finches died during a single shipment to 

 the United States. Limiting the prbhibition on importation of Appendix III birds would 

 also undermine the efforts of listing countries such as Ghana to protect their indigenous 

 birds. Wild birds would be illegally caught in countries prohibiting export, smuggled into 

 neighboring countries which allow exportation, and then "laundered" into the legal trade. 

 The Act's existing prohibition on the importation of all birds listed Appendix III must be 

 maintained. 



Proposed Chanpe : Amend Section 106 to allow the "List of Approved Species" to include 

 all species which are regularly bred in captivity, regardless of whether there is illegal 

 trade in wild-caught individuals of the species. 



Expanding the Section 106 exemption to cover all captive-bred birds regardless of whether 

 any wild-caught birds of the same species are being traded illegally would undermine the 

 Act and serve to promote the smuggling of exempted species. Currently, species that are 

 regularly bred in captivity and for which no wild-caught individuals of the species are in 

 trade, may be included on the Act's approved list. Trade in these species is therefore not 

 subjert to regulation under the Act. The AFA is requesting that requirements for 

 inclusion on the approved list be modified so that any species which is commonly bred in 

 captivity may be placed on the approved list, even if wild-caught individuals of the species 

 continue to be illegally traded. The Service specifically rejerted this proposal when 

 formulating their final regulations in 1992, citing existing problems in adequate regulatory 

 and enforcement mechanisms in many countries of origin for species which are subject to 

 illegal trade. According to the Service, this change to the approval criteria would 

 undermine the conservation efforts of range countries, and therefore violates the intent of 

 Congress and the purpose of the Act (59 FR 62257). Exempting species for which illegal 

 trade continues would remove any legal means of ensuring that imported birds are not 

 smuggled, wild-caught individuals. Amending the Act in this manner would therefore 

 legalize the importation of smuggled wild-caught birds. If this proposed change were 

 accepted, the importation of smuggled birds would essentially be legalized. 



