A parrot conservation group says the Department
of Environmental Affairs (DEA) could have “blood on its hands” for
stalling a pioneering project that would return a company of wild-caught
African Grey parrots, smuggled into South Africa, to their natural
forest habitat.
Dr Steve Boyes, the director of
the World Parrot Trust Africa, said officials in the department were
“roadblocking” an export permit issued by the Gauteng provincial
authorities to send the birds – in quarantine in Kempton Park – to a
suitable release facility in Uganda, Rwanda or Tanzania, where they
would ultimately be released into the wild.
“In my mind, it’s a threat to the
welfare of the birds,” Boyes explained. “It will mean a delay of another
month or six weeks and we can’t even afford two weeks more. The birds
need to get on a flight out of South Africa and into an aviary where
they can see sunlight, which they haven’t for the past three months.
“They need to build their muscle
tone and warm their bones and feel like they’re in their natural
environment again. Being in a concrete prison is not acceptable.”
The drama centres on a consignment
of 161 African Greys that a military patrol on the Mpumalanga border
found stuffed inside three tiny crates in April. A group of Mozambicans,
travelling on foot, had tried to smuggle the birds into South Africa.
The birds were taken to the
quarantine station in Kempton Park. Willem Grobler, a Limpopo-based
parrot breeder, claimed they were his, but couldn’t prove ownership.
Boyes
said: “Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites)
regulations are very clear about the fact that all confiscated wildlife
becomes the property of the country into which they are being smuggled.”
In early May, according to Boyes,
Dr Lisa Montgomery, a state veterinarian at the Department of
Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (Daff), asked the World Parrot Trust
Africa to take over “ownership” of the African Greys, explaining they
would probably be put down if they could not be released into the wild.
“She requested we support all
costs of feeding, disease testing, veterinary care and quarantine, as
well as make arrangements to have the parrots released to a suitable
site.
“To save these parrots, we
accepted, raised the necessary funds, and have been caring for them
since,” said Boyes, who revealed the trust had spent more than R40 000
so far.
The trust had approached the
governments of Congo-Brazzaville, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda – all
countries where African greys have gone extinct or locally extinct.
“They are keen to have this iconic
species, and it is important for their economy. By last week, we had
managed to secure three potential release sites and were gearing up for
the release.”
BidAir
Cargo and 1time have agreed to support the costs of transporting the
parrots in six large travel crates to the release country.
But Grobler is now ready to take
the issue to court and his attorneys have written to Daff and the
Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Board.
“They are mine, that’s for sure, but I hope we can get finished and klaar with this,” was all he would say yesterday.
Albi Modise, a spokesman for the
DEA, said it couldn’t issue a Cites export permit without the parrots
being officially forfeited to the state by a magistrate or judge, and
only if the birds were obtained legally.
“Mr Grobler’s legal representative
approached Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Board, claiming that Mr Grobler
legally imported the birds into Mozambique and that the birds were
stolen in Mozambique after import. It seems that Mr Grobler now wishes
to take ownership.
“The case will most probably be brought before a court to make a decision on the fate of the birds,” Modise said.
But
Boyes says the parrots, originally from the Democratic Republic of the
Congo, are “clearly the product of a smuggling operation. There is
nothing that links the birds to the trader, beyond the boxes they were
carried in.”
He claimed that Sonja Meintjes,
the deputy director of biodiversity enforcement at DEA, was roadblocking
the process. “She almost makes it seem as if the trust obtained the
parrots illegally. This doesn’t make sense – we’re not trying to sell
them, we’re trying to keep them alive and get them back to the wild.”
The department noted more birds could die.
“Further delays in getting the
birds exported might cause more deaths among the group of already
stressed birds, but unfortunately the legal aspects of such an export
have to be adhered to before the birds can be exported,” said Modise.
She said it was a perception that returning confiscated animals to the
wild was ideal.