Parrots, too

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1999:

CARACAS––”Sustainable use”
as preached by the World Wildlife Fund and
endorsed by the Bill Clinton/Albert Gore
White House will hit Venezuelan parrots
from April 15 to July 15, when members of
the Guarao tribe and other eastern Managas
and Delta Amacuro states will be allowed to
capture up to 2,000 guaro parrots, 200 redbellied
macaws, 50 royal parrots, and 50
blue-and-gold macaws.
Venezuelan wildlife authorities
“say they can’t control the thousands of people
who hunt exotic birds and sell them on
the black market,” Bart Jones of Associated
Press reported, “so they’ve decided to let
them hunt some species in the hope that
they’ll leave alone the birds who are most
endangered.”

Responded Alejandro Grajal,
head of the National Audubon Society’s
Latin American and Caribbean programs,
“We have no precedent throughout the
world where sustainable use of parrots has
been demonstrated to be viable.”
Only about 1,500 blue-and-gold
macaws remain in the wild. There are rarer
parrots in Venezuela––but not in the Delta
Amacuro/Managas region, Grajal indicated.
The 1993 Wild Bird Conservation
Act will prevent any of the parrots from
being legally imported into the U.S.