FEATURE


such birds has helped to monitor the success or otherwise of such projects, and has been made easier by modern improvements in smaller size and longer battery life of such trackers. Our speaker then took us on a jump back


to India, where she said that very few conservation projects existed, and there was little general ornithological interest. It has been illegal to catch wild parrots here since 1990, but this is not enforced, and 8 of the 12 native species of parrots are still regularly taken. Rescue Centres for Alexandrine and Derbyan Parakeets exist, but there are no Rehabilitation efforts. The situation is little better in Indonesia, which Thomas Arndt has described as being “20 years behind Brazil in parrot conservation”. Again, most of the problem is the result of heavy deforestation and illegal trapping. Better news came from Central and South America, with Rosemary citing the example of the Yellow-eared parrot in Colombia, where numbers have risen from 100 to 4,000 in 16 years. There is


considerable enthusiasm for educational projects involving schoolchildren, to tackle the problem at source. The fantastic importance of eco-tourism for bird conservation has been realised in many places, and the clay licks where parrots gather in their scores are very popular. However, in Peru, illegal trapping and the loss of nest sites by felling trees to collect fledgling birds is still a big problem. Of the 31 species of Amazon parrot recognised by CITES, 13 are listed on Appendix 1. Once again, most of the problem results from habitat loss


and


Derbyan Parakeet


BIRD SCENE 43


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