Northern California Nonprofit Joins Indonesian Wild Animal Rescue Network

Project Bird Watch (PBW) is the only affiliated organization from outside Indonesia to participate in the efforts to save Indonesian wildlife, and will spearhead the program for rescuing, rehabilitating and releasing Indonesian birds including cockatoos, Eclectus, lories and lorikeets, King parrots, Great-billed parrots, and cassowaries.

Napa, CA (PRWEB) April 20, 2005 -- Project Bird Watch, a Northern California based non-profit organization focused on providing incentives to indigenous populations for discontinuing the illegal exotic bird trade, is pleased to announce its recent acceptance as a collaborator and member of the Indonesian Network of Wild Animal Rescue Centers (JaringanPPS). The network includes nine local centers, scattered throughout Indonesia, which receive confiscated or donated wildlife including birds, mammals, reptiles and primates, and rehabilitate them with the goal of eventual release back to the wild.

Project Bird Watch (PBW) is the only affiliated organization from outside Indonesia to participate in the efforts to save Indonesian wildlife, and will spearhead the program for rescuing, rehabilitating and releasing Indonesian birds including cockatoos, Eclectus, lories and lorikeets, King parrots, Great-billed parrots, and cassowaries. Other collaborators on the project include government officials (police, forestry, conservation, and national park) as well as members of releasing programs for specific species.

Indonesian wildlife is at extreme risk from the collective effects of poverty and substandard living, former civil unrest, lack of support from local governments, and extensive logging throughout the region. In a country where high-end business salaries amount to less than $2,000 per year, many local villagers participate in the illegal trapping and trading of exotic animals, and parrots in particular, to supplement their livelihood. The result has been a decimation of local wildlife populations, leaving some exotic species such as the Moluccan and Palm cockatoos endangered and in critical need of protection.

Project Bird Watch works to improve the standard of living of local residents in Indonesia through multi-faceted programs that provide salaried work rooted in the local environment, while at the same time providing economic and social incentives for bird trappers to convert to a caretaker role as forest wardens.

According to Bonnie Zimmerman, Vice President of the PBW Board of Directors, It would be a travesty to lose these gorgeous birds and animals because of economic pressures on their human neighbors. But you cant separate the two. Until resident populations see the intrinsic value of preserving local habitat and species, theres little hope of saving these animals from eventual extinction in their natural environment."

PBW had already established a temporary rehabilitation and release center in the village of Masihulan on the Island of Seram prior to the invitation to join the rescue network. The center was designed to quickly house a group of Indonesian cockatoos and parrots that had been seized from smugglers and turned over to PBW for protection. The facility is called Kembali Bebas, Return to Freedom," and plans are now in place with the network to build a complete and formal center in the next two years.

Three Successful Parrot Rescue Operations

PBW has already performed three successful parrot rescue operations in Indonesia with the help of JaringanPPS and their other Indonesian collaborator, The Wallacea Foundation. In September 2004, National Park officers and police on Seram Island, Indonesia, acting on a tip from a colleague of Project Bird Watch, arrested a smuggler with nine Moluccan cockatoos, two Eclectus parrots, and five Red-cheeked Parrots. The smuggler was arrested and sentenced to a little over 2 months in jail. The National Park officials had neither the experience nor the facilities to care for parrots and a number of the confiscated birds did not survive. This motivated PBW to move forward as fast as possible with the development of its own permanent Rehabilitation Center on Seram.

In February 2005, officers of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources came upon an illegal shipment of Rainbow lorikeets and Red lories in the harbor of Ambon, an island just to the southwest of Seram. During the confrontation, the ship owner became angry and kicked three of the cages. One cage opened and all those birds escaped. The remaining lorikeets were confiscated and immediately released by the officers since lorikeets are not a protected species. Of the 25 Red Lories, 11 died from stress. However, 14 are now being rehabilitated at Kembali Bebas in preparation for probable release.

On March 17, 2005, a number of birds located at the Ambon facilities of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resource were found to be in poor condition due to the fact that the agency lacks the experience and resources to properly manage confiscated psittacines. PBW intervened and moved the birds to Kembali Bebas, including one Seram cockatoo, two Triton cockatoos, one Citron cockatoo, one Eclectus, one Victoria Crowned Pigeon, one Nicobar pigeon and one Chattering lory. There is also one Purple-naped lory, a highly endangered bird endemic only to Seram, being observed in a special cage. All of these birds will undergo quarantine, rehabilitation, medical testing, and behavioral observation before being released back into the wild.

Project Bird Watch is a nonprofit corporation working toward four main goals: 1) helping to conserve endangered Indonesian cockatoos and parrots, 2) helping to provide sustainable income for local Indonesian villages, 3) serving as a source of information and education about Indonesian parrots, and 4) improving the welfare of parrots in captivity.

The Indonesian Wild Animal Rescue Centers (Pusat Penyelamatan Satwa in Indonesian and shortened to PPS) manages the national program for the rehabilitation and release of Indonesian protected animals. Internationally, Indonesia is one of the CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species Fauna and Flora) ratified countries, and PPS has been approved to develop the wild animal rescue center facilities. A strategic function of PPS is to support the law enforcement effort of conservation of Indonesian protected species.

Board members for Project Bird Watch include Dr. Stewart Metz, President, Bonnie Zimmermann, Vice President, and Barbara Bailey, Secretary. Dr. Metz has been a physician for 32 years and has served in the capacities of clinician, biomedical researcher, administrator and teacher. He left the medical profession in 2001 to lead Project Bird Watch. Dr. Metz is a frequent contributor to Companion Parrot Quarterly, PsittaScene, PARROTS Magazine and LaJoie. His book The Flight of Cornelius Cockatoo: a Fable for Children and Adults" is due to be released in 2005.

Bonnie Zimmermann has been involved with parrots for over 20 years, most recently as researcher, educator, rescuer and rehabilitator of both domestic and wild parrots. She has recently worked in Central and South America and Eastern Indonesia, researching and studying endangered parrots in their natural environment. Bonnie produced Project Bird Watchs DVD The People and Parrots of WILD Indonesia" and is presently editing their newest documentary project, Return to Freedom."

Barbara Bailey began breeding cockatoos in 1995, but became increasingly aware of the growing number of unwanted and mistreated parrots in captivity. She eventually abandoned her breeding business in order to devote her time to parrot welfare, and in 1998 co-founded the Tucson Avian Rescue & Adoption Foundation in Arizona. She has visited Indonesia numerous times, and is a regular contributor to the Companion Parrot Quarterly as well as a popular lecturer.

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