A Literature Synthesis of Actions to Tackle Illegal Parrot Trade

Ada Sánchez-Mercado,Jon Paul Rodríguez,José R Ferrer-Paris,José L Tella

doi:10.3390/d13050191

Abstract

The order Psittaciformes is one of the most prevalent groups in the illegal wildlife trade. Efforts to understand this threat have focused on describing the elements of the trade itself: actors, extraction rates, and routes. However, the development of policy-oriented interventions also requires an understanding of how research aims and actions are distributed across the trade chain, regions, and species. We used an action-based approach to review documents published on illegal Psittaciformes trade at a global scale to analyze patterns in research aims and actions. Research increased exponentially in recent decades, recording 165 species from 46 genera, with an over representation of American and Australasian genera. Most of the research provided basic knowledge for the intermediary side of the trade chain. Aims such as the identification of network actors, zoonosis control, and aiding physical detection had numerous but scarcely cited documents (low growth rate), while behavior change had the highest growth rate. The Americas had the highest diversity of research aims, contributing with basic knowledge, implementation, and monitoring across the whole trade chain. Better understanding of the supply side dynamics in local markets, actor typology, and actor interactions are needed. Protecting areas, livelihood incentives, and legal substitutes are actions under-explored in parrots, while behavior change is emerging.

Highlights

IntroductionParrots (order Psittaciformes including parakeets, macaws, cockatoos, and allies) are among the groups of vertebrates with the largest proportion of species involved in the wildlife trade [1]
Parrots are among the groups of vertebrates with the largest proportion of species involved in the wildlife trade [1]
Temporal patterns in aims suggest that documents about behavior change had the highest number of citations even though it only accounts for four published documents

Summary

Introduction

Parrots (order Psittaciformes including parakeets, macaws, cockatoos, and allies) are among the groups of vertebrates with the largest proportion of species involved in the wildlife trade [1]. Aside from conservation impacts on the harvested species, and despite CITES regulations and international bans, both the legal and illegal trade have contributed to the establishment of alien and invasive populations of parrots worldwide [5,6]. In some instances, these nonnative populations may cause ecological, economic, and even human health problems [7] including the potential transmission of zoonotic diseases associated with illegally traded specimens [8,9]. Tallying the frequency of actions across the trade chain including an evaluation of the base-line information available related to each action, taking into account regional and temporal contexts, is critical for the development of evidence-based, policy-oriented interventions [18]

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