Mexico’s president, Felipe Calderon Hinojosa, has signed into law a bill banning the capture and export of the country’s wild parrots. The measure aims to protect Mexico’s 22 species of parrots and macaws, about 90 percent of which are in categories of risk.

The Environment Commission of the Deputy Chamber introduced the bill one year ago, and the Mexican Senate passed it in April with near unanimous support.

The bill was drafted in response to a 2007 report by Defenders of Wildlife, a nonprofit wildlife advocacy organization and Teyeliz A.C. an organization that monitors the trade of Mexico’s wildlife. The report was the first to document the illegal trade of parrots. It found that an estimated 65,000 to 78,5000 of Mexico’s wild parrots and macaws are captured for trade each year, with more than 75 percent dying before reaching a purchaser.

According to the Defenders of Wildlife, six of Mexico’s 22 species of parrots and macaws are found nowhere else in the world. The latest Mexican classification, which has yet to be published lists 11 species as endangered, five as threatened and four as requiring special protection.

PetProductews.com

December 2008

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