Export Quotas

The CITES website (click on the image below) includes information on annual export quotas, by country and by species.

For example:


1) Export quotes for 2001-2003

On 31 January 2003, CITES published the first quotas authorised for 2003 (the figures are incomplete for some countries, as quota definitions were still under preparation).

The following figures represent the official annual export quotas for the three African psittacidae species.

 

Export quotas for African grey parrot / Timneh parrot / Senegal parrot in 2001 and 2003

Country of origin

Species

Quota in 2001

Quota in 2003

Cameroon

African grey parrot

12,000

12,000

Dem Rep of Congo

African grey parrot

10,000

8,000

Gabon

African grey parrot

Timneh parrot

250

(in preparation)

 

Guinea

Senegal parrot

Timneh parrot

9,000

750

9,000

Guinea-Bissau

Senegal parrot

7,000

 

Liberia

Timneh parrot

3,000

 

Mali

Senegal parrot

19,000

19,000

Senegal

Senegal parrot

16,000

 

Togo

Senegal parrot

900

 

Sierra Leone

Timneh parrot

2,000

 

 

 

 

2) Analysis of 2001 figures

 

In 2001, the export of a total of 78,750 African grey parrots / Timneh parrots / Senegal parrots was officially authorised.

 

Seizure is not without its difficulties: crippled and unsellable birds, birds killed by stress, illnesses caused by wholesaler’s often dangerous storage conditions, etc. To arrive at those 78,750 birds actually exported, how many were actually seized? By what factor should the export total be multiplied to determine the actual number of birds taken? Applying a coefficient of 1.4 — considered reasonable by specialists from protection agencies — gives us 300,000 birds removed from the wild.

 

This figure does not take into account trafficking and illegal trade which lead to illicit exports.

 

 

What species of animal can survive such high annual levels of removal?

 

3) Additional information

 

The following additional data shed an interesting light on the situation:

 

a) Certain African countries are major exporters of "straight bills", essentially Mozambique: 69,000 specimens authorised in 2003, solely for Estrildid Finches (mainly Euplectes, Lonchura, Amadina).

 

b) For the Americas, the first quotas that CITES published in 2003 are the following:

 

Argentina:

Blue-fronted amazon: 5,980 (The specimens are required to have a ring.)
Pacific parrotlet: 20,000

 

Nicaragua(Exported birds will come from breeding farms)

Red-fronted amazon: 2,158

Mealy parrot: 500

White-fronted amazon: 1,625

 

Paraguay:

Blue-fronted amazon: 2,051

 

 

Source: CITES