Social media and the internet have become a tool for those in the wildlife trading industry to facilitate the buying and selling of exotic animals, including parrots. BBC recently talked to Faiz Ahmed, who is in the business of importing and selling birds in Bangladesh, and Ahmed opened up about the ins and outs of the business, in particular the trade of the African grey.

It is illegal under international law to sell wild-caught African greys as they are classified as an endangered species and on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature Red List. During the conversation with Ahmed, he revealed how it was possible to evade a check at customs, saying that ‘It’s hard to get import permission for grey parrots. There’s another species almost the same as the grey parrots, Timneh parrots. It’s possible to get permission for Timneh parrots and import grey parrots instead.”

Social media 

Ahmed also said that he openly advertises the sale of endangered birds and animals all over social media to promote his business. Experts researching into how animal traffickers use social media have found that the online illicit wildlife trade remains in plain sight. Traffickers often use the ‘stories’ function on Facebook or Instagram to make their content viewable for only a short period of time. Aside from your popular types of social media, there are also many smaller websites such as classified advert sites for collectors and enthusiasts to share to buy, sell, or discuss wildlife trafficking.

In order to prevent their activity from being tracked, sellers and traffickers online use specific language or ‘codes’ to avoid detection. For example the word “jitot” means a fully tamed bird and “raw” refers to wild and plentiful. Traffickers and buyers in the industry are very much alive to these terms. A project led by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime (Gitoc), have found more than 4,500 classified adverts for African greys. The project plans to expand its search to other illicit commodities such as bear bile and ivory.

As indicated in a previous HKALPO article “The Increase in Online Wildlife Trafficking”, Facebook (now owned by parent company Meta), pledged in March 2018 to support the Coalition to End Wildlife Trafficking Online’s approach to reduce wildlife trafficking online. Meta has continued their commitment to the coalition and has taken down several pieces of content after being alerted by BBC on both Facebook and Instagram.  

In a study “Trade in wild-sourced African grey parrots: Insights via social media” , the authors examined 259 posts on an unnamed social media site featuring the trade of African greys between 2014 and 2018 and found that over 70% of them contravened the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) regulations. The study further found that the vast majority of exports originated in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Although social media has facilitated the trafficking of wildlife, it is also a tool that can be used to stop the ongoing trafficking as those monitoring social media platforms have the power to report posts containing suspected illegal activities.

Similarly and more recently, a study entitled “Inferring patterns of wildlife trade through monitoring social media: Shifting dynamics of trade in wild-sourced African Grey parrots following major regulatory changes” discussed the use of social media to monitor and understand patterns of legal and illegal trade and provide an insight into the processes. The study found that between 2014 and 2020, there has been a 94.6% reduction in publicly visible trade posts featuring the trade of wild-sources African greys, however, it is not known whether a reduction in public online visibility of posts disrupts the wildlife trade. Additionally, the social media posts indicate that the bulk of the ongoing trade activity is in Iraq, Libya, Southern Asia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the article calls for interventions to target these countries.

Hong Kong

In a previous article, HKALPO highlighted the wildlife trade industry in Hong Kong, in particular, that there is no shortage of online trade in Hong Kong. The trading of African grey parrots is regulated under the Protection of Endangered Species of Animals and Plants Ordinance (Cap 586) and any person importing, exporting, re-exporting or possessing endangered species contravening the Ordinance will be liable to a maximum fine of HKD$10 million and imprisonment for 10 years. On 18 August 2021, the Organised Crime and Serious Crimes Ordinance (Cap 455) was amended to include wildlife trafficking offences and the amendments gave authorities more power to investigate illegal activities, which will hopefully in turn allow the authorities to go after the ‘big fish’ in the trafficking world instead of mules.

In April of 2019, a local man was intercepted by the Police with 121 birds without valid health certificates, 6 of which were suspected to be African greys. Hong Kong continues to be a hub for the illegal wildlife trading industry due to its location and it is hoped that more can be done to protect our wildlife.