Commodity-chain analysis for the capture and trade in the African grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus erithacus) in Cameroon

This paper makes a commodity-chain analysis on the capture and trade of the African grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus) from Lobeke National Park area in the East Province of Cameroon. The African grey parrot has been noted as one of man's friendliest pets with popularity attributed to its intelligence, cognitive, communicative and extraordinary mimetic abilities. Worldwide, the African Grey Parrot is the third most commonly traded wild bird species. Being a CITES' Appendix II species, Cameroon's export quota of 12000 African grey parrots is worth some US$ 12 million in European markets. The Lobeke National Park area supplies 80% of the birds with seven stakeholders involved in the commodity-chain. These stakeholders earn differential amounts with total annual gross revenue. The trappers, government and licensees get just 0.1-0.18%, 1.6% and 0.6- 0.8% respectively of what the importers get. These statistics are indicative that very small proportion of the money generated through the African grey parrot commodity chain stays in the source country. This has major policy implications to strengthen the sector in terms of distributional equity and sustainable resource use

---

• View source