Transaction records as a tool for bird trade monitoring in supporting bird’s conservation and sustainable use

Abstract

Birds market survey has been proofed to be effective as a complementary method to evaluate the population of birds in the wild. We implemented this method to monitor the birds trade in Jambi. Rather than direct observation to the market, we examine the transaction records from three wholesalers to obtain data. Our results show that during the period of January-September 2017 the total birds traded is 11,660 specimens and transaction value is Rp 941,932,900.00. Number of generic species is 76 in which some names refer to same species. From those generic species, we can identify about 26 species and the rest of birds is grouped according to their genus or family by which consist of 11 kind of birds. There are 4 species (and group of species) that traded over 1000 specimens i.e Acridotheres javanicus (2,824), Chloropsis sp. (2,185), Garrulax mitratus (1,266), and Zosterops sp. (1,355). The expensive songbirds such as Pycnonotus zeylanicus and Kittacincla malabarica are absent but the least expensive species but favorable, Copsychus saularis, is only traded in small number (157 specimens). Combine field survey and market survey may give better picture of overall bird population that critical for setting up conversation strategy of Indonesian birds.