Notification to the Parties

No. 2000/066 Geneva, 14 December 2000

CONCERNING:

Illegal trade in Anodorhynchus leari

1. The Secretariat has received a request from the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Natural Renewable Resources (IBAMA) to seek the cooperation of all Parties to prevent illegal trade in specimens of Anodorhynchus leari (Lear’s macaw).

2. Anodorhynchus leari, CITES Appendix I, is endemic to Bahia, north-east of Brazil. In 1998, its estimated population in the wild was 170 birds.

3. This species nests in sandstone cliffs from November to May, a time when it is particularly vulnerable to capture. Illegal trapping is the main threat to the survival of this species.

4. The Management Authority of Brazil has never issued a permit allowing capture or export of birds of this species for any reason. The Management Authority states that only two birds are kept legally outside Brazil, these being pre-Convention specimens held at Busch Gardens, United States of America.

5. The Management Authority of Brazil believes that international illegal traffic in this species has intensified in the last decade.

6. Recognizing the need to adopt rules to provide greater protection to this species, the Brazilian Government created a group in 1992, which is now known as the Committee for the Recovery and Management of the Lear’s Macaw, Anodorhynchus leari. The purpose of this Committee is to elaborate and implement strategies for the recovery of the species.

7. Brazil is working in collaboration with the Governments of Singapore and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to repatriate smuggled birds.

8. In order to prevent illegal trade, all Parties are requested to take note of the above information, alert their enforcement authorities of the presence of specimens of this species on their territory and inform the Management Authority of Brazil of such cases.