First Spix macaw egg of the 2023-season has been laid 
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.ACTP - Verein zur Erhaltung bedrohten Papageien e.V
- Thread starter vogelcommando
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Brasilian government has terminated cooperation with ACTP citing transfer of Spix macaws from ACTP to the richest Indian man Mr. Ambani last year that was allegedly never permited by Brasil.
This termination means that there wont be further releases of Spix macaws by ACTP in Brasil nature (there was none already last year or this year).
Source
This termination means that there wont be further releases of Spix macaws by ACTP in Brasil nature (there was none already last year or this year).
Source
This feels like a slap on the wrist. Based on what I have read and heard about it the ACTP would rather keep the macaws than fulfill any claims of conservation anyways.
Actually, my impression is the opposite. ACTP (and other international players) worked actively to bring together the last pet Spix macaws, bred them, then sent some to a zoo in Brazil (which failed to breed them), then financed the release center, then released the birds.
Brazilian government was relatively inactive and if left to itself, Spix macaw would be extinct by now. Now the Brazilian bureaucrats moved from the mostly passive to actively hindering.
Brazilian government was relatively inactive and if left to itself, Spix macaw would be extinct by now. Now the Brazilian bureaucrats moved from the mostly passive to actively hindering.
I - as @jurek - concur it is quite the opposite the Brasilian Govt. has been inactive, lax and rather late on board and now they are about to screwball up the only working and credible grass-roots conservation project for Spix's macaw that actually hit all major conservation concerns for the species and the road to recovery.
It is in the same vein as an erstwhile episode with a well known Dutch primatologist Marc van Roosmalen banned from Brasil by the then Bolsonaro Govt. under smears' campaign ...., which put the spotlight firmly on the Brasilian Govt. ineffective ways to deal with Amazonian, Cerrado and Caatinga conservation practice (and I mean not just the Bolsonaro Govt. period in office ...). It is in the vein jealousy and stealing the limelight as actually doing real conservation and natural history/ecological baseline research where some of the Govt. sponsorred institutional framework is legging behind painfully and loss over their own bad track record.
The Brasilian bureacracy has no real vision nor original ideas where it comes down to grassroots conservation of Brasil's biodiversity, sensitive habitats and how to conserve them. Not saying there is not a trained expert large cohorte of conservation and wildlife biologists but unhealthy personal politics and posturing are not a new thing for the mindboggling bureacracy in the country.
(No disrespect to any of our Brasileiro/Brasileira Zoochat Forum posters here).
To discontinue this major dynamic change conservation project in the Brasilian caatinga area on the basis of a breeding loan of 6 Spix's macaw to an Indian national (I believe it is he who is establishing a new major state of the art zoo in India from scratch ...), just give me a break!
It is just plainly unbelievable what Brasil's regulators on the back of a rather populist agressieve and fake facts awareness campaign have done to this great conservation project (it is testament to some far-out left PETA/AW extremists trying to stir the puddle ... and ... really that whole campaign was not nice at all) have done and stopped this major recovery project for the species that would actually have achieved their recovery. I actually view them as rather criminal by design and lack of knowledge and expertise populist posturing.
The whole program is now in limbo and the outside expertise in psittacology management and husbandry is not available in the country itself and the recovery effort for Spix's macaw in situ is now in real danger of collapse as local trained staff are prevented from doing their jobs. There is no transparency anymore on site now what is happening at the local breeding center and in situ monitoring of the released macaws.
I am very sad today ... as it is another bad hairday in conservation in Brasil..., of which we have had very many .... least of all the almost 20% of Amazonia gone as a tilting point to irreversibel climate change and dissecation of the tropical rainforest, not to mention the silent genocide déjà vu in action as we speak on the Amazonian First Nations and the landgrab, pillage, rape, theft, murder and other economic interests ransacking both the rainforest, cerrado, caatinga and Atlantic forest areas in Brasil ...!
This all perpetrated by landless settlers with no land title to areas whatsoever (long time battle between the local Amazonian First Nations who know not the concept of ownership, yet are physically dependent on the forsers, have a vested interest in keeping the environment intact, yet are not seen in government policy-making nor other parts of Brasilian society), but a more or less Govt. sponsored big mining, forestry, cattle and big aggro magnate and big business conglomerates and interests' to convert nature to "arable" land in a rather cynical route to a complete rout of Brasil's biodiversity and natural heritage. This is the true and almost silently executeer ecocide as we speak happening as yet day to day in Brasil's interior.
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Thanks @Kifaru Bwana ! I couldn't have said it better then you did ! I'm also very conserned about the whole released-project just now where the first breeding-results were archieved ! Hopefully a solution can be found and the project can continue in some way.
Also I hope the breeding-stock in Germany and the other Spix macaws in Belgium and now India can stay where they are and not - like the birds from Loro Parque - have to return to Brasil.
One thing I have to add to your statement - it's not only the Brasilian Govt. who act this way, many ( to many ) other countries also act this way when dealing with conservation
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English language article with some more info:
Brazil will not renew agreement with German Spix’s macaw breeder - ((o))eco
Brazil will not renew agreement with German Spix’s macaw breeder - ((o))eco
I have a bad feeling that this is personal politics of Brazilian conservation bureaucrats. This sounds typical: just as ACTP achieved a big success - the released Spix Macaws bred in the wild for the first time in 30 years, somebody quickly kicked the ACTP out to keep all the fame to himself.
Some people in nature conservation departments see rare species as a tool from which they derive their personal power or their own turf and territory. They don't want others, for example outside conservation charities, in their source of power and prominence.
The only chance is that the higher bureaucrats in Brazil police their subordinates to stop hindering nature protection and work with international charities. I am not interested in names and who personally in Brazil prohibited what and why. I am interested in the future of the Spix macaws.
I agree that giving some parrots from Germany to India has no direct relevance to releases to the wild in Brazil.
More generally: it shows the wisdom of having insurance populations in several countries, quite the opposite to the naïve belief that an animal is best protected in its native country. And is a bigger problem which conservation must learn to tackle, just as important as making parrots breed and protecting palm trees from being chopped down.
Some people in nature conservation departments see rare species as a tool from which they derive their personal power or their own turf and territory. They don't want others, for example outside conservation charities, in their source of power and prominence.
The only chance is that the higher bureaucrats in Brazil police their subordinates to stop hindering nature protection and work with international charities. I am not interested in names and who personally in Brazil prohibited what and why. I am interested in the future of the Spix macaws.
I agree that giving some parrots from Germany to India has no direct relevance to releases to the wild in Brazil.
More generally: it shows the wisdom of having insurance populations in several countries, quite the opposite to the naïve belief that an animal is best protected in its native country. And is a bigger problem which conservation must learn to tackle, just as important as making parrots breed and protecting palm trees from being chopped down.
Thanks @Kifaru Bwana ! I couldn't have said it better then you did ! I'm also very conserned about the whole released-project just now where the first breeding-results were archieved ! Hopefully a solution can be found and the project can continue in some way.
Also I hope the breeding-stock in Germany and the other Spix macaws in Belgium and now India can stay where they are and not - like the birds from Loro Parque - have to return to Brasil.
One thing I have to add to your statement - it's not only the Brasilian Govt. who act this way, many ( to many ) other countries also act this way when dealing with conservation
I argue that ACTP’s involvement with the Spix’s macaws were done under obligation rather than heart. I don’t think it would be easy to act as a defiant while having the largest flock of the most recognizable endangered parrot in the world. Otherwise the greater conservation community, that seems to be predominantly filled with preservationists, would do anything and everything to take ACTP down. But then again that did not stop ACTP from giving away at least 43 spix’s macaws and many other parrots to hobbyists in Europe.
By all means I am not siding with the Brazilian government nor any government that monopolizes its wildlife and shoots itself in the foot. I don’t know what was going on in the heads of the officials who thought ending the release program would discourage ACTP from further giving away rare parrots to unrecognized hobbyists. All this move did was to take off the reins off ACTP completely.
I am also not a preservationist who has a grudge against private traders. I personally think that prohibitionist laws are counterproductive sometimes resulting in more illegal activities. But countering bad laws with illegal or dubious activities only serves preservationists and anti-captivity activists who want the entire trade gone even if it hampers conservation efforts. Greenwashing the hobby and the trade to appease authorities and the general public doesn’t help either.