Singapore a key laundering point for illegal birds: Report
Singapore has been fingered as the key laundering point for tens of thousands of illegally-caught birds from the Solomon Islands, one of the world’s major wildlife exporters.
The Republic took in some 50,000 birds from the islands over a ten-year period and re-exported them to other countries such as Taiwan, said a report released on Tuesday by international wildlife trade monitoring group Traffic.
The special report looked at the types and numbers of birds exported from the Solomon Islands, and aimed to verify the legality of the trades.
Singapore took in a whopping 72 per cent of the Solomon Islands’ bird exports. The next highest importer, Malaysia, imported only 21 per cent. -By Feng Zengkun
Cardinal lories (above), Solomons cockatoos and eclectus parrots in the Solomon Islands, a major wildlife exporter. According to Traffic, an international wildlife trade monitoring group, Singapore is the single largest importer of birds from the islands but most of these birds probably come from illegal sources. The birds are likely to have been caught in the wild and declared as captive-bred. (AFP)
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Category: Singapore
