A Ghanaian national was arrested by wildlife officials from the Centre Regional Delegation of Forestry and Wildlife for illegal possession and export of 300 African grey parrots during an operation that was carried out in collaboration with the police at the Nkoabang Neighbourhood in Yaounde, on Friday March 24, 2017.The operation that was carried out with the technical support of The Last Great Ape Organisation (LAGA) is said to be part of a larger investigation that is ongoing and involving a group of international parrot traffickers.

The investigations are attempting to expose and take down an international network of traffickers of the African grey parrots according to sources close to the matter and they hold that the trafficking network extends right to Europe. The investigations are being carried out by the EAGLE network (a network of wildlife law enforcement support projects across Africa) that tracked a consignment of approximately 100 illegal African grey parrots that left the Nsimalen International Airport on board a flight en route to Abidjan. From Abidjan it continued to Ghana where an arresting team took one suspect for the illegal cargo.

The 42– year old Ganaian was found to have facilitated the illegal export of the parrots to Ghana. According to Ofir Drori, the Director of LAGA who was speaking to reporters by phone after the arrest, “the illegal trade in grey parrots is so organized that many times it is involving complicity and corruption, it fetches a lot of money for the traffickers and therefore they are investing in an international network of facilitating the crimes”. A second man was arrested alongside the Ghanaian as one of those who is facilitating the illegal exports and the investigations are getting more leads to how the trafficking network operates.

They say this is an attempt at dismantling a network that is carrying out huge harm to populations of the parrots and Ofir Drori declared “This arrest that took place in Cameroon is an attempt at dismantling a network in this example a Ghanaian one, the person who got arrested with the parrots is from Ghana and he was trying to facilitate illegal export and had actually facilitated illegal shipment internationally”.

This is not the first time huge quantities of African grey parrots are seized from traffickers. In 2007 alone, two big seizures of African grey parrots took place at the Douala International Airport. Over 1000 African grey parrots that were about to be illegally exported were seized and taken to the Limbe Wildlife Centre and later released into the wild. The illicit trade in the parrots is immense and the main reason it is widely favoured as pets is because the bird is very intelligent and can master up to 600 words.

In a bid to curb the damaging trend of parrots trafficking, CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora)., during CoP17 that held in South Africa last year decided to increase the parrot’s level of protection from Appendix II to Appendix I – the highest level within the system. This means the international trade in African grey parrots is banned and in this respect, in January, the Minister of Forestry of Wildlife equally issued a circular letter addressed to the entire staff of his Ministry and to wildlife exploiters informing them of the change of status of the African grey parrots that have been reclassified as totally protected wildlife species and whose capture could only be legal through a special permit issued by the Minister. The seizure of the parrots is an indication that the illegal trade, despite the ban, is ongoing and effective enforcement measures are urgently needed to stop the process.