Lafeber’s Global Parrot Conservation Spotlight November 2024: The Parrots & Cockatoos of Indonesia

Founded in 2001 by Dr. Stewart Metz and Barbara Bailey, the Indonesian Parrot Project (IPP) has spent 23 years working in Indonesia to combat the illegal trade of endangered cockatoos, Eclectus parrots, lories, and other parrots. IPP has created successful programs for the rehabilitation, release, and final return of these birds into their endemic, wild habitats.

Here is their story, in Barbara Bailey’s own words:

Indonesia is a vast archipelago of over 18,000 islands and has a complicated geography. There are over 600 spoken languages and a diversity of people that range from the business class in Jakarta to small tribes and even headhunters.  Yes … headhunters.

The Nuaulu and Huaulu tribes live in a remote part of Seram and have changed their ways thanks to IPP and their local partners, Konservasi Kakatua Indonesia (KKI). But it used to be that when a young boy came of age they would go out of their village and kill someone to take a head. On one of our first trips, Dr. Metz and I learned about this custom, but the local people protected us as because the headhunters were interested in Stewart’s head!

These tribes also believe that the Moluccan cockatoo is the symbol of a man because the crest rises and falls and is a bright red color (like a phallus). They believed that eating the bird would give them strength. Through careful discussions, our team was able to convince them that we could work together. In return for ceasing the deaths of cockatoos, we arranged for all molted cockatoo head feathers to be given to the tribe to use as crowns for the young men when they came of age.

Anything is possible but here is a caveat … in countries such as Indonesia, poverty is prevalent and that was the original reason for trapping parrots to sell to the illegal trade. When IPP started working in these parrot-rich areas we recognized the problem … when people are starving and have no source of income, they will do whatever is necessary to feed their families. Trapping was an easy way to do that.

Importantly, IPP realized that it does not help to tell people what to do. Instead we need to ask them what they need. And when we asked, they listened … and they told us. They needed plants, farming implements, a source of clean water, and ways to put food on the table for their children. So, we answered. We developed a mutual agreement that if the tribe would stop trapping, we would provide them with the tools they needed to have better lives.

Since the first release in 2005, our rescue, rehabilitation, and release program has returned over 15,000 cockatoos, parrots, lories, and other endangered and rare Indonesian birds back to their endemic forest homes at several different locations.  We have a rescue center and a local staff that monitor active nests. The villages now have organic farming, women’s cooperatives, and made major headway at schools and universities at all levels.

Much trapping has ceased over the years, however, there is a new challenge. Despots from other countries hire local people to trap larger quantities of these birds which are then smuggled out of the country hidden in boats, packed in suitcases, and routed through other private locations to supply the demand. These people are armed and dangerous.

Most recently a boat was confiscated on its way to Singapore that had over 300 cockatoos packed in boxes and hidden in the hold of the ship. When recovered, only about 30% of these cockatoos were still alive. We must continue the fight for our beloved parrots and keep the wild populations as they should be – wild.

This month’s Lafeber donation supports the good works of the Indonesian Parrot Project, which is dedicated to the conservation, protection, rescue, rehabilitation, and release of a wide variety of special and endangered parrot species.  To learn more about IPP, go to indonesian-parrot-project.org

Sue, donation link:

https://indonesian-parrot-project.org/donate/