The 13th meeting of the Conference of the Parties held in Bangkok, October 2004 drew together 1,200 participants from all over the world.

There were 64 items on the agenda covering a diverse range of topics. Good news for some and not for others. However:

TUESDAY 12 OCTOBER 2004

Lesser Sulphur Crested Cockatoo: Cacatua sulphurea or Yellow Crested Cockatoo was uplisted from Appendix II to Appendix I (Proposal 11).

The proposal came from Indonesia itself, the home of this cockatoo.

A proposal to uplist this cockatoo to Appendix 1 has been put forward by Germany in 1997, but this proposal was withdrawn before being voted on, for various reasons.

The main reason for the decline of this cockatoo in the wild is unsustainable trapping of these cockatoos for the pet trade since the 1970's.

Although this cockatoo is fully protected under Indonesian law, illegal trapping and smuggling still takes place.

The uplisting now means that any of the Lesser Sulphur Crested nominate or sub species (including Citron Crested - citrinocristata) will need either:

a) a closed ring or:
b) a microchip

To enable the owner to sell. This will include adult breeding birds as well as youngsters bred. Even original wild caught specimens (of which there are still some) will need a microchip

This proposal was adopted by consensus.

The uplisting of this cockatoo to Appendix 1 is fantastic news hopefully it will help put an end to illegal trading of wild caught specimens being passed off as captive bred. Thus preserving the remaining ever dwindling wild populations.

However there may be some difficulties in monitoring East Timor (Timor Leste) where significant numbers of parvula have fairly recently been discovered. This is because East Timor is the world's newest country, and only became independent from Indonesia in 2002. It is at this moment in time NOT a party to CITES.

Please register your birds with the Lesser Sulphur Crested (LSC) Stud Book, the only UK stud book NOT run by the Zoo Federation.

Please send your details (which are passed on in confidence) to: The UK Parrot Society, 92a High Street, Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire UK.

Or Contact us at ckcbirds@yahoo.co.uk

Other relevant proposals of interest discussed at the 13th COP were:

Peach Faced Lovebird: Agapornis roseicollis was deleted from Appendix II (proposal 12).
Lilac Crowned Amazon Parrot: Amazona finschi was uplisted from Appendix II to Appendix I (Proposal 13).

These were also both adopted by consensus.