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Nigeria’s illegal bird-trafficking trade is worsening

Credit: WildlifeSOS
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Nairobi, Kenya
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Nigeria’s customs agency caught more than 1,600 parrots and canaries headed to Kuwait. Officials call this the country’s ‘largest’ wildlife-trafficking bust by number.

The shipment was seized at Lagos’ Murtala Muhammed International Airport. This incident is indicative of a broader, ongoing issue – Nigeria as a source and transit point for illegal wildlife trade, which treaties such as CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) attempts to combat.

However, poor enforcement capability and scant border security allow wildlife traffickers to engage in business unhindered. Borders remain porous due to a lack of resources.

BirdLife International reports that the illegal wildlife trade brings in between $7 and $23 billion. This makes it the 4th most profitable cross-border crime right behind drugs, weapons, and human trafficking.

Singing competitions popular in some Middle Eastern and Southeast Asian regions have boosted the demand for songbirds like canaries. Rare parrots, some critically endangered, can exceed $1,000 per bird in global markets.

There is appeal beyond aesthetics. Some buyers desire rare feathers for fashion or home decoration. Others keep birds as status symbols. The trade has become so commonplace that complete smuggling networks exist that routinely source, transport, and launder illegally taken birds using fictitious documentation.


Ecological implications

The extraction of wild birds as a class from their ecological niche can have very detrimental effects. Parrots and other seed dispersers are extremely important in maintaining healthy ecosystems, in regenerating forests, and determining insect populations. Over-extraction is an all too real problem and has adverse effects by degrading habitats and diminishing biodiversity.

For species likely already facing pressures from deforestation, habitat fragmentation, and climate change, wildlife trafficking adds pressure to already limited populations and pushes species closer to extinction. Many parrot species in West Africa, including the African grey, have seen their wild populations drop by over 90% in some regions due to traps set up just for the wildlife trade.

This latest seizure marks a big win for Nigerian customs, but experts note that such captures are too infrequent. Nigeria plays a key role for smuggling networks because it directly links to other areas.

Animals trafficked out of Nigeria typically go first to a Middle Eastern or Asian countries before their final destination.  Wildlife experts warn that unless funding continues and more severe consequences are established for traffickers, no real dent will be made in the illicit trade.


International responsibility

The illegal wildlife trade is a cross-border crime that requires cross-border cooperation. Supply countries are not the only ones that should have a shared accountability for their encroachment, and demand countries also need to be doing their share to help mitigate this trade.

If the consumer market for exotic pets and status-symbol animals continues to thrive, enforcement actions in the supply country will likely be of little effect.

Some conservation groups have called for more public awareness campaigns in nations that serve as a regular destination, in conjunction with stricter monitoring of captive-breeding claims, which is a frequent loophole in laundering wild-caught birds as ‘bred in captivity.’

For now, the fate of the birds will remain uncertain. Rehab and release is a huge challenge when the animals are not injured or stressed by the transport. As it stands, wildlife rescue centers in Nigeria are always underfunded and understaffed.

This crackdown underscores how big, lucrative, and complex wildlife trafficking is and serves as a reminder that there is a collective responsibility for all to be custodians for animals. They’re not commodities to be bought and sold, key players in our ecological web that sustains all life on Earth.

Writer Nairobi, Kenya

I’m Derrick (He/Him), a Journalism and Mass Communication graduate from the Technical University of Mombasa, Kenya. Currently I write about trending topics and major issues affecting Africa for Thred, specifically concerning SDGs. View my Twitter here if you’d like to send me feedback.

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