Well over a decade after Jamaica indicated that it would take steps to secure the return of endemic Jamaican parrots from Austria, the State agencies charged with that responsibility are silent on the matter.

Neither the Attorney General’s Chambers nor the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) have responded to Jamaica Observer queries on the issue which resurfaced following the successful repatriation of a 170-year-old Jamaican giant galliwasp specimen from Scotland in April.

The flock of parrots, housed in Schönbrunn Zoo in Vienna, are hatchlings from 74 eggs smuggled out of Jamaica in 2011 by two Slovak men.

The eggs were seized when the two Slovaks, posing as tourists returning from a Jamaican vacation in April 2011, were held by Austrian customs at Eisenstadt Airport.

News reports at the time said the men had arrived on a flight from Duesseldorf, Germany, and customs officers noticed that their suitcases had white labels, meaning that they had travelled from a non-European Union (EU) country via Duesseldorf.

The men, who were escorted to the customs control area, claimed that they were on vacation in Montego Bay and insisted that they had bought nothing in the island except for a few cake packages as souvenirs.

However, one of the customs officers searched the men’s luggage and found packages containing chocolate cookies, cake packages, along with a coconut carved in the form of a monkey.

X-ray pictures suggested that there was content other than cookies and the customs officers found the 74 eggs.

The eggs were seized and the Slovaks interrogated. One of the men, identified in media reports as Roland P, denied any knowledge of the eggs, but the other, identified as Marian P, told the customs officials that he really liked the “green birds” in Jamaica and had accepted the eggs as gifts without knowing what types of eggs they were.

Both men were released and allowed to continue their journey.

However, the customs officers suspected that what they were faced with was a case of illegal smuggling of protected species. They had the eggs taken to Schönbrunn Zoo where an appropriate living area was created, while incubators and special bird feed were procured.

After an incubation period, 45 parrots — 22 Black-billed and 23 Yellow-billed Amazons — were successfully hatched from the 74 eggs.

As the hatchlings grew, the initial suspicion that they were from endangered species endemic to Jamaica were confirmed.

In September 2011, NEPA and the Natural Resources Conservation Authority (NRCA) received information about the confiscation of the eggs and said they took immediate steps to verify the information with the intention of seeking their return under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

At the time both agencies said they had contacted officials in Vienna and would be sending official communication to the Austrian Management Authority which makes decisions under the convention.

However, since then there has been total radio silence on the matter. A highly placed source told the Sunday Observer that the Austrians have “stopped talking to Jamaica” about the parrots and an appeal by Jamaica to the EU did not receive an encouraging response.

In response to a Sunday Observer query, the European Union Delegation to Jamaica said it “is not aware of the case mentioned”.

It said the “EU has updated its action plan against wildlife trafficking, initially adopted in 2016, to address the evolving complexities of wildlife crime”.

This revised plan, the EU Delegation added, “emphasises stronger sanctions, financial investigations, asset recovery, and actions to change consumer behaviour within the EU, and preserve global biodiversity”.

A similar e-mail query sent to the International Law Division of the Attorney General’s Chambers on May 13, 2024 did not receive an acknowledgement or reply, neither did a follow-up e-mail sent on May 20.

When the Sunday Observer contacted NEPA on the issue, the agency acknowledged receiving the query and said that the individual who could speak about it was overseas and was scheduled to return last week. However, at press time there was no further word from the agency.

Last week, a source with knowledge of the matter said Jamaica should insist on a resolution, as the parrots are reported to be a popular visitor attraction at the Vienna zoo.

“Jamaica has to have a discussion with Austria about either repatriation of the parrots, just as was done with Scotland for the galliwasp, or establish ownership and come to some agreement on monetary compensation similar to what China does with pandas,” argued the source, who opted for anonymity.

China, which has ownership of most of the world’s giant pandas, is said to have the only natural habitat for the bears. For centuries it has engaged in what has been termed ‘Panda diplomacy’, which is basically presenting the animals as gifts to other nations to soften China’s image.

However, in 1984 China began lending pandas to other countries under what has been described as “renewable 10-year contracts” for between US$500,000 and US$1 million a year for each panda, according to a report in the Washington Post.

Under the terms of the loans, all cubs born abroad belong to China and are to be sent back to that country before they turn four years old.

The source also pointed to Article VIII of the CITES Convention, saying that paragraphs 1 and 4 provide for Jamaica to make a claim for the return of the parrots.

Paragraph 1 states:

“The parties shall take appropriate measures to enforce the provisions of the present convention and to prohibit trade in specimens in violation thereof. These shall include measures:

(a) to penalise trade in, or possession of, such specimens, or both; and

(b) to provide for the confiscation or return to the State of export of such specimens.”

Paragraph 4 states:

“Where a living specimen is confiscated as a result of measures referred to in paragraph 1 of this article, the specimen shall be entrusted to a management authority of the State of confiscation; the management authority shall, after consultation with the State of export, return the specimen to that State at the expense of that State, or to a rescue centre or such other place as the management authority deems appropriate and consistent with the purposes of the present convention.”

Jamaica became a party to CITES on June 22, 1997 and enacted the Endangered Species (Protection, Conservation and Regulation of Trade) Act in April 1, 2000. The Act was promulgated to ensure the codification of Jamaica’s obligations under the convention and provides for the management of endangered species of wild fauna and flora and its regulation in international trade.

At the time the parrot eggs were stolen the underground price ranged from 4,000 to 15,000 euros each.

Today Jamaican parrots, which are listed on the World Conservation Union Red List of Threatened Species, are being sold in the illegal pet trade for anywhere between US$5,300 and US$20,000, according to the US Fish and Wildlife Service.