THE RED LIST
IN 2015 A SURVEY
COUNTED 19,000
BIRDS OF 206
SPECIES BEING
TRADED IN JUST
THREE DAYS
2 Yogyakarta. Java, Indonesia.
Photo Peter Nijenhuis/Flickr
THE SILENCING
OF THE SONGBIRDS
The 2016 Red List reveals that Indonesia’s love of songbirds is a tainted love;
unsustainable trapping is driving many endemic species towards extinction
James Lowen
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BIRDLIFE • DECEMBER 2016
P
ramuka market assaults the senses.
Crushed into the Indonesian capital of
Jakarta, it is dimly lit, sweltering and oppressively claustrophobic. The stifling air resounds
with chaotic song and the acrid stench of
ammonia brings tears to the eyes. But at least
we humans walk freely here. The same cannot
be said for thousands of birds incarcerated in
tiny bamboo cages stacked three metres high
and extending for dozens of metres. Illegally
snatched from the wild, they now face life sentences as objects of trade, household pets or
participants in songbird competitions. “Welcome” to the tainted love that is Java’s bird
trade, which has wreaked havoc on Indonesia’s
avifauna and is arguably the most disconcerting
story emanating from the 2016 update of the
global IUCN Red List for birds.
DECEMBER 2016 • BIRDLIFE
THE IMPACT OF
JAVA’S BIRD TRADE
IS THE MOST
DISCONCERTING
STORY FROM
THE 2016 RED LIST
This year, some 19 Indonesian bird species
affected by trade have been uplisted. All bar one
are songbirds; most occur in no other country; six species are now considered Critically
Endangered. All this within the context of Indonesia holding more globally threatened birds
than anywhere except Brazil, including Critically
Endangered species long known to be imperiled
by trade such as Bali Myna Leucopsar rothschildi
and Helmeted Hornbill Rhinoplax vigil.
“Indonesia’s long established bird trade is now
causing population-level implications for a rapidly widening group of species, mainly from the
Greater Sundas [Java, Sumatra and Borneo]”,
says Rob Martin, BirdLife International Red List
Research Assistant. Although birds may be
traded across Asia, available data suggest Java
to be the epicentre.
“80-100 bird markets now exist across Java”,
says Ria Saryanthi, Head of Communication and
Institutional Development at Burung Indonesia
(BirdLife Partner). “Each kabupaten [district] usually has one. Then there are bird stalls, pet shops,
breeders, internet shops and street traders.”
Meanwhile, Anuj Jain, BirdLife International’s
Programme Officer, is particularly concerned
about online wildlife trade, declaring it “a new
and largely invisible mechanism that is now of
serious concern”.
A 2015 survey of Jakarta’s three main bird
markets by the organisation TRAFFIC counted
19,000 birds of 206 species being traded over
just three days. Some 98% were both native to
Indonesia and illegally traded; one fifth of these
were endemic to the country. Serene Chang,
TRAFFIC Programme Officer in Southeast Asia,
described the findings as “catastrophic news for
Indonesian birds”.
Conservationists including BirdLife International’s Research Fellow, Dr Nigel Collar,
urgently convened to discuss these and other
revelations at the inaugural Asian Songbird
Crisis Summit in September 2015. Astonished
as much as anything by the breadth of species being traded, delegates identified those of
greatest conservation concern, which BirdLife
then prioritised for assessment during the 2016
Red List process. The outcomes of BirdLife’s
analysis are shocking.
Greater Green Leafbird Chloropsis sonnerati, for
example, was uplisted from Least Concern to
Vulnerable. “Until recently”, says James Eaton of
Birdtour Asia, “it was common in Greater Sundan forests. Trapping wasn’t even a concern.”
Now, says Eaton, who has been closely involved
in investigating the trade, things have changed.
“We draw a blank most days when searching
for it in the field, yet encounter huge numbers
for sale in Jakarta. Trappers in Sumatra are suddenly targeting this species above all others.” It is
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