South Africa has no wild grey parrots, yet it is the world’s biggest exporter of the popular endangered birds. Kimon de Greef exposes the role of the breeders in calls for CITES to ban the trade Some of the parrots confiscated from executive member of the Parrot Breeders Association of South Africa, Dieter Horstmann. Photo: Diana Neille On June 25 2016, a shipment of 241 African grey parrots arrived at Johannesburg International Airport, purportedly from a breeder in Dubai. Sealed inside several wooden boxes, the birds passed through customs without being inspected by conservation officials, a breach of import regulations. The importer was a retired state attorney and an executive member of the Parrot Breeders Association of South Africa, Dieter Horstmann. He drove his parrots to a private quarantine facility that afternoon. Horstmann’s troubles began a month later. Since 1982, the commercial trade in African grey parrots has been regulated, in theory at least, by CITES, the international treaty for protecting endangered wildlife. Grey parrots are among the world’s most popular avian pets, principally due to their ability to mimic human speech, but may soon face extinction in the wild, following decades of overexploitation. Their listing on Appendix II of CITES imposed conditions on exporters to prevent unsustainable trade – a system that wasn’t working, according to conservationists insisting on tighter controls at the 17th CITES Conference of the Parties (CoP17) in Sandton. CITES delegates voted to list African grey parrots on Appendix I on October 2, following a tense two-hour debate. For the first time at CoP17, voting took place by secret ballot. The motion passed with 95 votes in support, 35 votes against, and five abstentions. The proposal was submitted by five range states – Gabon, Nigeria, Guinea-Bissau, Angola and Togo – and was co-sponsored by Chad, Senegal, the United States and European Union. Horstmann’s parrots were confiscated in July, on suspicion that they had been poached in central Africa. Dr Chris Kingsley, a specialist wildlife veterinarian, runs the quarantine facility where Horstmann delivered his birds. Grey parrots are susceptible to disease in captivity, and breeders isolate new stock to avoid contagion. Three of Horstmann’s parrots had died in quarantine, but the rest were healthy, and Kingsley informed Horstmann that he could collect them on July 25. Four days before this release date, officials from the Department of Environmental Affairs intervened. “They were unhappy with the process,” said Kingsley. “After inspecting my premises they served me with a legal notice, instructing me to keep the parrots.” The notice states that Kingsley’s staff “[failed] to produce the original CITES permit” for the parrots. This raised “reasonable suspicion that there [had] been a breach of the law”. It was a technical complaint, based on CITES regulations. To export any species listed on Appendix II, wildlife traders must first apply for a permit from their local CITES authority. This permit is supposed to prove that the shipment has been sourced legally, without threatening the survival of the species. In some instances, importers must then apply for a permit from their own CITES representatives. This is the case with grey parrots in South Africa. When the documentation is ready, the shipment may proceed, accompanied by its original export permit. Upon collection, the importer must submit their corresponding permit – also original – to a CITES official at customs. After inspecting the shipment and both documents, the official may sign off on the transaction. For some reason this final check didn’t take place with Horstmann’s parrots, although both permits had been issued. Inspections are a bureaucratic process prone, on occasion, to administrative error, but the department’s initial grievance soon led to more serious doubts about the parrots’ provenance. Sources close to the investigation that ensued say that the birds were found to be infected with blood parasites from central Africa. It is possible that these test samples had been contaminated, producing a false result. The birds were all adults – unusual, when almost all breeders export juveniles. They wore removable leg rings, not the closed identification bands breeders typically favour. They seemed terrified of humans. And they travelled in a surprising direction – from the Middle East, a net importer of grey parrots, to South Africa, the world’s biggest exporter. Taken together, this information suggested that Horstmann’s parrots may have been caught illegally in the wild and “laundered” via Dubai.