International wildlife trade, avian influenza, organised crime and the effectiveness of CITES: The Chinese hwamei as a case study

The Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is the most important global initiative to monitor and regulate the international trade of plants and animals, but there is a lack of (retrospective) assessments of the effectiveness of its actions. We here focus on the international trade in Chinese hwamei Garrulax canorus, a songbird native to south-eastern China and northern Lao PDR and Vietnam. Prior to the year 2000, the species was heavily traded as an ornamental cage bird, both in countries within and outside its natural range. In an effort to prevent international overexploitation, at the request of China, the Chinese hwamei was listed in Appendix II of CITES, regulating all international trade. Here we compare data from three non-range countries (Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia) for which we have bird market survey data prior to and following the CITES listing. In addition, we assess whether or not CITES import and export figures agree with observations in the bird markets, and explore the contemporary (online) trade and trafficking in Chinese hwamei. We find a clear effect of the CITES listing and Chinese export restrictions in Indonesia (before ~50 birds/survey vs ~15 birds/survey after), but not in Thailand (~10 vs ~13) and Singapore (~4 vs ~16). Singapore is the only country that reports the import of Chinese hwamei, 1650 birds in 2002–2004 only, possibly accounting for a proportion of the birds observed in trade. In contrast, neither Thailand nor Indonesia report the import of a single Chinese hwamei since its CITES listing, despite some 2000 birds having been recorded openly for sale, suggesting large-scale illegal international trade in the species. Five seizures in Singapore and Indonesia were mostly because of concern about avian influenza. Price data, corrected for inflation, suggests that prices for Chinese hwamei have increased substantially, albeit following a delay, from ~US$50 prior to the listing to ~ US$200 after. We conclude that the CITES Appendix II listing of Chinese hwamei has had some positive effect on reducing the volumes of these birds in international trade, mainly through implementation of domestic legislation in China, but that substantial illegal or undocumented trade persists in Southeast Asia, involving organised criminal networks. We recommend actions from range countries, such as China, to cease the illegal export of Chinese hwamei, from importing countries such as Indonesia, to ensure no illegal shipments of birds enter their country, and for consumer countries where the species cannot legally be traded to curb the illegal domestic trade as the demand for songbirds in these markets drives the trafficking.