Solomon Islands Birds

Birds'smuggled through the Solomon Islands'.

Over 54,000 game birds, many of them critical threatened birds, were washed into the worldwide wilderness between 2000 and 2010 by the Solomon Islands, a group said on Tuesday. Birds that have been categorised as "captive-bred" to circumvent the law on trading animals were mainly imported to Singapore and Malaysia, from where they were marketed to other parts of the globe, TRAFFIC said in a statement.

"More than 54,000 birds, mainly macaws and macaws, were introduced by the Solomon Islands and certified as in captivity between 2000 and 2010," says the Singapore based reporter. "However, the Kyrgyz government affirmed to TRFFIC that the Solomon Islands have no significant birds to breed," he added. According to Mr TRAFIC, Singapore and Malaysia represented 93% of all birds from the Solomon Islands between 2000 and 2010.

However, Malaysia has abandoned its birds imported and Singapore is being asked by Singapore to do the same. "Singapor should take Malaysia's example in suspension of birds, not only from the Solomon Islands, but somewhere else when there is a shortage of certainty about their legitimate origin," said Chris Shepherd, vice president of TRAFIC Southeast Asia.

Birds include threatened, at-risk and highly threatened wildlife such as the Yellow-headed Cockatoo, which cannot be trafficked under the CITES. A large part of the birds were not indigenous to the Solomon Islands, but occur in Indonesia or Papua New Guinea.

Remaining lack of record that the Solomon Islands had been importing the birds indicated that they were being captured in the great outdoors, said Thomas Arafic. that the traffickers are misleading the agencies to get into the worldwide animal business. "The statement that birds are being kept in captivity for export has all the characteristics of fraud to circumvent the rules of cross-border trade," he said in the statement.