This is an article from local press, translated by machine, and a reaction bellow: Exports of endangered species from the Czech Republic break records. In 2020, according to the Ministry of the Environment, Czechs exported almost 55,000 specimens protected by the international CITES agreement. This is the highest number so far. Most of it was exotic birds. In their breeding, the Czechia is one of the world's great powers, experts confirm. However, the number of specimens seized during the illegal trade has also increased. At first glance, the ranking of countries that have exported the most protected birds to other countries in recent years is not surprising. The first is South Africa, followed by Cuba and the Philippines. That is, exotic countries, where a large number of rare bird species naturally live. However, the fourth place was taken by the state, which does not correspond to this description - Czechia. According to data from the Ministry of the Environment, in 2020 alone, Czechs legally exported a total of 54,974 individuals of animal species protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, called CITES. Czechia thus broke its previous record from 2019, the number of exported specimens increased by about two and a half thousand. Trade in protected species has been growing in the Czech Republic for a long time - since the beginning of the last decade, the number of exported animals has more than tripled. This comes from the State of the Environment Report 2020, which is issued annually by the Ministry of the Environment. Most of the exported animals, almost 40,000, were birds. Especially small parrots - red-rumped Parrot, eastern rosella and crimson rosella, yellow-fronted parakeet or Fischer's Lovebird. "In the case of exported birds, these are all specimens born and bred in captivity in the Czech Republic, which shows what a breeding power in Czechia is," Dominika Pospíšilová, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of the Environment, told Aktuálně.cz. This is also confirmed by Pavla Říhová from the Institute for the Environment, Faculty of Science, Charles University, which has been dealing with the issue of trade in endangered species for a long time. "In the Czech Republic, we have fifty to sixty thousand people who actively breed or trade species protected by CITES. We are really top in this in Europe. For example, Hungarians have about three thousand, Portuguese only six hundred," she calculates. According to Říhová, the origin of this peculiarity can be traced back to the communist regime, when due to limited travel, Czechs were looking for ways to get closer to exotic regions, at least with the help of hobbies that they can do at home. "So they grow cacti, raise fish or just parrots. And today they also export a huge amount," he adds. Parrots from the Czech Republic usually set out on a long journey. They most often go to Arab countries of the Middle East - Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar or the United Arab Emirates. It is common to keep small parrots as pets there. "Really large shipments are going there, for example six hundred neophemas or fifteen hundred alexanders," says Říhová. Despite the high number of exported specimen, however, according to her, it is still mainly small breeders. CITES aims to protect rare species from the threat of extinction in the wild due to over-exploitation for trade. Breeding, sale and transport of these species is permitted, but is subject to stricter regulations and controls, and the breeder or trader needs to obtain a special permit. Pavla Říhová points out that the inclusion of an animal on the CITES list does not necessarily mean that it is a rare species. This is precisely the case with the parrots that Czechs export the most. Some of them are on the list because it is easy to confuse them with rarer bird species. For greater trade control, therefore, it is more asuring that almost every parrot must be subject to a special permit. "The goal of CITES is mainly to preserve the life of birds in nature. The specimen that Czechs mostly export have not seen nature a hundred generations ago. But there may be a rare species hidden among them," says Říhová. This is what airport and border controls focus on, among other things - inspectors check each consignment to see if there is any rare species hidden among common parrots, such as rosellas, such as a macaw. Veterinarians and customs officers then check that the animals are treated under the rules and that the bird trader has the necessary permit - each breeder must have an approved farm and export from the veterinary administration, as well as a CITES export permit from the Ministry of the Environment. Checks do not only take place at airports. According to spokesman Jiří Ovečka, the Czech Environmental Inspectorate sets out several dozen inspections every year directly to breeders of exotic birds. In 2018 and 2019, they undertook a total of 59, physically inspected five hundred parrots. They focused on the rarest species, such as cockatoo, macaw or Amazon. "Violations of the law were found in about half of the cases," says Ovečka. According to him, the most common offenses were failure to prove origin, the absence of mandatory unmistakable markings, commercial handling in violation of the law, late mandatory registration or failure to keep records of breeding or trading. Czechia records increased numbers last year, also in terms of illegal trade in protected birds. Last year, inspectors confiscated 26 live birds during inspections at the airport or border, while in recent years the number has never exceeded ten. Unusually, the number of dead birds seized also increased - there were 58 of them. However, according to Říhová, the total extent of illegal trade in endangered species is difficult to deduce from the number of seized pieces. "There are very few people working like inspectors in our country, and seizures match that. We have some successes, but there could be more," he said. According to the director of the Czech Ornithological Society, Zdeněk Vermouzek, it can be said with almost certainty that the number of undetected cases of rare bird smuggling far exceeds the number of detected ones. "We know that illegal trade exists and that its volume is alarming," Vermouzek fears. And a sort of reaction / commentary by a online media that serves parrot breeder news. Are 40,000 exotic birds exported from the Czech Republic a lot or not? And are we a superpower in trade in protected species? The headline might have surprised somebody. On Sunday, the news portal Aktuálně.cz published an article according to which the Czech Republic became an export power of protected bird species. According to statistics from the Ministry of the Environment, almost 40,000 of them were exported in 2020 alone. These were all species under CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. According to Aktuálně.cz report: Exports of endangered species from the Czech Republic break records. But that's not entirely accurate. That number of birds is correct, so are CITES listings. But there are several categories that fall under CITES, not just the well-known "one", which includes species directly endangered by commercial activity and illegal capture in the wild. When exporting animals from the Czech Republic to third countries outside the European Union, for all parrots except budgies, cockatiels and pink-throated agapornis, the exporter must obtain a so-called permit, ie an export permit from the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The exporter will receive the same permit for Fischer's lovebird and hyacinth ara (in the latter case, of course, there is more paperwork, including proof of the legal origin of the individuals). While there is no dispute about threat to hyacinth macaws in the wild (although according to the IUCN Red Book categorization it is already a vulnerable species, which is a milder degree of threat), the Fischer's lovebird is not endangered. However, most of the almost 40,000 birds exported from the Czech Republic in 2020 were small and medium-sized species of parrots. Nobody controls budgies or exports to EU countries So what kind of birds are they? No need to go far, just look at any bird market in the country. They are exotics sold by hobby breeders to traders. Bulk buying at minimum prices on Czech bird markets and selling for many times higher amounts abroad, especially in Arab countries and Asia. Czechia is the fourth country in the world in terms of the number of birds exported per year, after South Africa, Cuba and the Philippines. These are the traditional residences of large bird farms, from which tens of thousands of parrots and other ornamental birds are exported around the world. Exports from the Czech Republic are not so varied in the number of species, but high in volume. It is the budgies, agapornis, cockatiels, neophemas and other commonly bred species of parrots, often in various color mutations, that go beyond Czech borders every year. Among the species subject to the obligation to obtain an export permit in years 2010-2020, the most common were red-rumped parrots (66 978), eastern rosella (65 715), crimson rosellas (24 214), yellow-fronted parakeets (22 669) and Fischer's lovebirds (22,479). Budgies are not included in the list (that would require an export permit), as are not cockatiels and rosy-faced lovebirds. In fact, many more exotics were exported from the Czech Republic in 2020. Moreover, when it comes to exports within the European Union, they are not controlled at all and the Ministry of the Environment does not issue any permits for them, so there may be thousands more birds a year. The Czech Republic does not have to be fourth in the export of exotic birds, but also third or second in the world. And it has nothing to do with encroachment of endangered species, as might appear in the headline.
