Envoy netted with parrots

A FOREIGN diplomat was caught at Entebbe International Airport on Saturday with 22 parrots which he was trying to smuggle out of Uganda, reports Charles Wendo. Sources said the parrots were found in a fruit box on a Libya-bound chartered plane after security personnel tipped customs officials. The smuggling and trafficking of parrots contravenes both Ugandan and international wildlife conservation laws. The confiscated parrots were handed over to the Uganda Wildlife Education Centre (UWEC), formerly Entebbe zoo, where they are being raised. This is the highest number of parrots ever confiscated from a single smuggler. The UWEC technical advisor, Wilheim Moeler, yesterday said the wildlife centre had received the parrots. He described them as young parrots that must have been removed from their nests in the jungles. He said they had not yet known the origin of the parrots, but suspected they were picked from the Democratic Republic of Congo. "This is definitely commercial. It is not a case of somebody trying to take out a pet," he said. Wildlife sources said the leading destination for the smuggled parrots was the United Arab Emirates, where they are sold at about Us$1,000 each. Parrot traffickers offer local poachers in Uganda money ranging from sh50,000 to sh150,000 per parrot. Wildlife experts say this is the driving force behind the poaching of parrots, which are now threatened with extinction. Under the Convention for International Trade on Endangered Species (CITES), parrots are considered among the most threatened animals. The convention forbids trade in parrots and other endangered species. A wildlife source said the parrot traffickers had nearly depleted Uganda's stocks on Ssese Islands. Ends.