You miss them sometimes and ask yourself, where have all the birds gone? However, if you are a social-media savvy, you may wonder where the birds you see on the Internet come from.
Online illegal wildlife trade
A report released last month by Traffic, a leading nongovernment organization working globally on trade in wild animals and plants for their biodiversity conservation and sustainable development, revealed the rampant online trade of birds from Indonesia to the Philippines.
The report titled, “Farmed or poached? The trade of live Indonesian birds in the Philippines,” flags the booming trade and trafficking of Indonesia’s protected wild birds in the Philippines, a country known to harbor a diverse species of endangered birds.
The report presented data on the trade of bird species native to Indonesia that do not occur naturally in the Philippines but are sold in the country.
Traffic researchers drew from online trade findings, seizure records of Indonesian bird species in the Philippines and Indonesia, and import and export records from Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) for live Indonesian birds in the Philippines.
‘On-and-off’ Facebook groups
Surveys from January 2018 to December 2019 recorded 501 unique posts involving a minimum of 841 live Indonesian birds offered for sale by 182 traders through 20 Facebook groups.
The Facebook groups are known to be “on-and-off” as they are shut down and new ones are opened to continue the illegal activities.
According to the report, of the 25 identified species, 21 (84 percent) belong to the order Psittaciformes, or birds comprising of parrots, amazons, cockatoos, lorikeets, lories, macaws, parrakeets, and 24 are regulated by CITES.
Three of the five CITES Appendix I-listed species were among the top 10 species recorded in trade by quantity. More than half of the posts (56.5 percent) were suspected to include wild-caught birds.
Trade data discrepancies
However, data of Philippine imports of Indonesian bird species between 1979 and 2019 showed massive discrepancies between exporter-reported and importer-reported quantities.
“While there were 8,295 birds of 58 species reported by exporters, just 1,034 birds of 21 species were reported by the Philippines,” the report said.
“The Philippines reported exporting 8,871 live Indonesian birds belonging to 51 species, again mostly Psittaciformes. These exports peaked in the 1990s, fell in the 2000s and rose again in the 2010s. The vast majority [95.6 percent] of the Philippine-exported Indonesian birds were declared as captive bred [source code C].” the report added.
A closer look into individual species found inconsistencies that bring into question the legality of allegedly breeding of animals within the country for export, the report noted.
Emerson Sy, one of the authors of the report, said among the 51 Philippine-exported CITES-listed Indonesian birds, 48 species had no source, or had insufficient records of legal importation, or the export commenced prior to the first reported legal importation.
Worse, the Philippines also exported six CITES Appendix I-listed species, despite there being no CITES-registered captive breeding operations for the Indonesian birds.
Buyer and seller
The Philippines is both buyer and seller of illegally traded wildlife, Sy told the BusinessMirror in a telephone interview on November 7.
“The Philippines is both ‘a buyer and a seller’ of illegal wildlife, birds included,” he said.
According to Sy, if Indonesian birds are being smuggled into the Philippines, it is also highly possible that the country’s native birds are being smuggled out of the country.
‘Wildlife laundering’
Sy noted that “wildlife laundering” is the most likely culprit behind, if not the unchecked, harvesting of the country’s feathered friends in the wild.
He said in Filipino that some zoos are notorious for claiming to have successfully bred wild animals in their care, only to be exported to prospective buyers.
“It is time that the government regulates these so-called zoos that are allowed to farm animals without a wildlife farm permit or breeding permit as they actually are engaged in wildlife laundering. What if they are also buying illegally caught animals in the wild and passing them on as offspring of their zoo animals? We will never know,” he explained.
Report under verification
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Biodiversity Management Bureau (DENR-BMB) said the report’s data and accuracy need further verification.
“We are verifying the report,” DENR-BMB Director Natividad Bernardino told the BusinessMirror in an interview on November 8 when sought for a comment.
Moreover, Bernardino said DENR-BMB’s wildlife law enforcement task force has not been remiss in its duties and responsibilities.
She said that in the past the agency has made unprecedented arrests and seizure or confiscation of wildlife species being traded by unscrupulous traders.
‘Leave wildlife animals in natural habitats’
Best Alternatives Director Gregg Yan said illegal wildlife traders and buyers should mend their ways and leave the wild animals in their natural habitats.
“Many breeders both here [Philippines] and abroad have the skills and technology to breed and raise birds,” Yan told the BusinessMirror via e-mail on November 9.
As such, he said the best alternative to wild birds is to keep certified farmed birds instead.
“Common examples should include parakeets lovebirds, plus selected parrots. However, we should make sure that these non-native birds are never ever released into the wild,” he ended.
At risk of poaching
On its web site, Traffic said Indonesia’s wild birds are already at risk from poaching and the international bird trade.
It added that the triple threat of easy availability online, smuggling and doubtful legal trade in the Philippines add even more pressure.
Serene Chng, Traffic program officer, was quoted in a separate report as recommending stronger law enforcement in the Philippines and collaboration with Indonesian counterparts to investigate and disrupt cross-border wildlife crime networks that could prevent this problem from escalating.
Sy said that besides direct sales, smuggled birds caught in the wild are known to be laundered into the legal trade streams, often through the Philippine captive breeding facilities.
“This is why we have recommended to authorities to conduct regular and thorough physical checks, and document audits of all registered keepers and breeders of Indonesian wildlife in the Philippines,” Sy explained.
‘Institutionalized’ network
Previous interviews about the operation of illegal wildlife traders and well-documented arrests and confiscations would tell that Indonesian birds were previously being dropped off and received to a notorious trader from Pasay City in Metropolitan Manila.
In 2018, hundreds of birds, from black palm cockatoos and rainbow lories to young emus were seized by authorities during a raid at an unassuming house owned by Abraham Bernales.
Bernales has been arrested by authorities three times. He was able to elude prosecution twice but was finally convicted of illegal wildlife trade.
The Indonesian birds are actually “ordered” from General Santos City in Mindanao. Authorities believe he also had contacts or sources of illegally caught Palawan wildlife.
Bernales’s network is “institutionalized,” authorities told the BusinessMirror. His pet shop in Pasay City was used as a front for illegal activity. He was reportedly the supplier of Indonesian birds in Calabarzon and Central Luzon, particularly in Nueva Ecija.
How smuggling is done
According to authorities, an island in Indonesia nearest to the Philippines is the source of the Indonesian birds.
By boat, the illegal wildlife traders travel all the way to Bali Island, where the animals being smuggled into the country are checked, fed and provided water so they would not die during transport.
Sometimes, Bernales’s contact would schedule turnovers offshore to make it difficult for authorities to catch them.
Illegal wildlife traders operate discretely and are very cautious because of past arrests and confiscation made by authorities led by the DENR-BMB, sources told the BusinessMirror on condition of anonymity.
Transboundary issue
Asean Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) Executive Director Theresa Mundita S. Lim said that the report demonstrates that the diversity in the Asean region are interconnected, threats to the natural capital in the region are also interrelated and transboundary in nature.
“Poaching and wildlife trafficking are issues that contribute to biodiversity loss, the impact of which transcends social and political boundaries,” said Lim, a former DENR-BMB director, told the BusinessMirror via Messenger on November 8.
One such impact, she said, is the rise in new and emerging diseases.
“We should, thus, encourage collaborative and integrated approaches among all countries in the Asean in finding ways to combat wildlife trafficking, whether they are sources, transit points or markets for illegally collected wildlife,” she pointed out.
Lim said the ACB is ready to facilitate cooperation among the Asean member states (AMS) to address common challenges affecting the rich and unique biological diversity in the region.
Inter-country collaboration
Dialogue, scientific and policy forum are a needed to determine integrated actions that can be undertaken by both Indonesia and the Philippines, Lim pointed out.
She said there is a need to look at underlying drivers. “Other AMS can also participate in the discussion as such concern is not confined to Indonesia and Philippines alone,” she added.
Lim added that strong enforcement alone could not address the issue of illegal wildlife trade.
“Providing more incentives for protecting wildlife resources in the natural habitat, education and awareness for the youth and communities near wildlife habitats and across the supply chain, disincentives to reduce the demand, and enabling policies—all these should complement strong enforcement,” she said.
Image credits: Gregg Yan