Cockatoos are highly intelligent and beautiful birds.
They are also a pleasure to millions of people every day.
Some people love them as pets, others enjoy seeing them in the wild.
Tourists travel to visit locations where cockatoos live in the wild.
Places as diverse as Australian towns and cities
or the hidden islands of Indonesia
where the birds are also well appreciated by the local peoples.
Breeders and traders make money from cockatoos such as this one.
Unfortunately, however, many of the birds that are sold as pets, are sold illegally.
Trappers and smugglers are the bottom tier of the vast business, that is the parrot trade.
The illegal wildlife trade is the fourth most lucrative organized crime in the world
after arms trafficking, drug trafficking, and human trafficking.
Wildlife trafficking has brought many species to extinction
and to the brink of extinction in Indonesia
a country of more than 17,000 islands.
According to the Indonesian government
less than 9,000 of the islands have been formally named
and less than a thousand are permanently inhabited.
It is in this environmental context that experts estimate
hundreds of thousands of birds are captured yearly in Indonesia.
The majority are songbirds, but parrots are also among the most sought after
with an estimated 12,000, including cockatoos
trapped every year for the illegal wildlife trade.
Customarily they are seen as status symbols, and given as gifts.
They are also exported to supply demand in other parts of the world.
When physician Dr. Stewart Metz, a parrot-lover, arrived in Seram, Indonesia, in 2001
he didn’t know the trip would be one of realization.
He had made numerous trips aimed at discovering how these beloved birds live in the wild.
He could not have known that this journey would change his life forever
that he would end his career as a physician
in order to establish a parrot conservation program with Indonesian partners.
And that he would spend the last two decades of his life in that collaboration
building the Indonesian Parrot Project.
Stewart saw the people, he saw the birds in the wild
he knew that he wanted to find a way to protect and conserve them.
So in 2001 they founded the Indonesian Parrot Project
and started work basically going to Seram
which is an island of Maluku
to study the Moluccan Cockatoos
to do a little research work, try to work with the local community.
I joined the project in 2003.
At the end of the trip I was on the beach with him, and he said
“you are exactly what we need, you are not afraid of the field"
"would you run our eco-tourism program?”
And I agreed.
And after that, I became a member of the board of directors, and it just went on from there.
In 2004, only three of the seven Indonesian cockatoo species
had the highest protection category by CITES
the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
These were the Moluccan Cockatoo
the Palm Cockatoo
and the Goffin’s Cockatoo.
But in 2005, the Yellow-crested Cockatoo was also granted the highest protection status.
Special investigations leading to the upgrading of the protection of this species were led
by the nonprofit organization ProFauna Indonesia in the Northern Moluccas and West Papua.
However, not much was known in the Southern Moluccas.
This is why the newly created Indonesian Parrot Project, or IPP
collaborated with ProFauna Indonesia to conduct investigations
on the islands of Seram and Ambon
the only home to the Salmon-crested or Moluccan Cockatoo.
The team found that there were several bird collectors
who bought Red Lories, lorikeets and cockatoos from trappers.
The trappers poached at night with fishing line snares placed in tree tops.
Smaller birds were captured by tying a live decoy bird to a glue-coated branch.
Collectors paid less than 10 US dollars for a cockatoo
and for 5 US dollars they received fake permissions in Ambon
for transport of lories and lorikeets, behind which the cockatoos were hidden.
Sometimes they were individually smuggled in plastic bottles
or thermoses with small holes for a little air, hardly enough to survive.
The birds were taken by boat to Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia
where a cockatoo costs between 100 to 400 US dollars.
Trapping birds and destroying bird habitats
are not necessarily considered to be productive life goals.
However, when there are no other opportunities to earn money
to feed one’s family and make sure that one’s children can go to school
or receive medical care, people don’t have much of a choice.
From the beginning, Stewart and his colleagues were working
toward creating alternative activities to trapping and habitat destruction.
The trappers were trained to be wardens, caretakers, and ecotourism guides.
The Sulphur-crested Cockatoo is still abundant
we can often see these beautiful birds in many regions of Australia.
However, one of its closest relatives, the Yellow-crested Cockatoo
is extremely rare, living only in this region.
Recent studies have shown that habitat destruction due to logging and agriculture
contributed to the decline of this parrot species
but the most threatening factor has been the illegal trade.
The Yellow-crested Cockatoo became critically endangered in 2000
the population declined by more than 80%.
At most 2,500 individuals in total exist
dispersed on several subspecies on different islands.
There is a little island in the Masalembu Archipelago deep in the Java Sea.
Masakambing Island is less than 8 km2
and home to less than 500 people.
And, the only place that serves as home to the Abbotti Cockatoo
the rarest subspecies of the Yellow-crested Cockatoo.
Masakambing Island is completely isolated from the world
from November to March, when typhoons, torrential rains
and high waves make it impossible to travel to or from the island.
The way to approach it is a challenge in itself
15 hours on a ferryboat from Sumenep, the closest town
and 3 hours on a fishing boat from the Masalembu Island
which also used to be home to these birds in the 1980’s
until they were completely hunted out.
It was a near extinction on Masakambing Island as well.
The elders of the local community remember how it once was
when these birds flew in flocks all around the island.
But that time is long gone.
In the 1980’s, the island became a stopping place for oilmen
traveling from oil rich areas of Indonesia to Sumbawa and Bali.
This led to the trapping of birds, and other destructive activities.
Very soon the Abbotti Cockatoos were thought to be extinct.
It is astounding that they survived.
That is why two enthusiastic researchers sponsored by Stewart
Dwi Agustina and Dudi Nandika
traveled to the island of Masakambing to conduct field research
to confirm if there were surviving Abbotti Cockatoos.
Dwi and Dudi confirmed that the Abbotti Cockatoos were not extinct.
However, only about 10 individuals had survived.
And so the project began to work together with the people of Masakambing
to protect this extremely rare bird and its habitat.
First the project had to gain the trust of the locals
and the support of the community chief.
Then they initiated anti-smuggling campaigns
and programs to raise awareness via school visits, presentations, and posters.
Not only human activities threaten the existence of these cockatoos.
This place is called the Masalembo Triangle
due to dreadful plane and boat disappearances.
Unsurprisingly, the weather conditions on Masakambing Island
contribute to the hardships of life for birds.
Often, cockatoos nest in the hollows of old
or dead mangrove and cotton silk trees
which easily fall due to strong wind and torrential rains.
The rough weather has destroyed nest sites and killed mothers and chicks.
Many local people from the community
were offered employment through the project.
They installed devices protecting against predators, such as snakes
around the trunks of the trees serving as nest sites
and they hung artificial hollows on sturdy trees.
In 2015, the project bought a piece of land on the tiny island
which they designated for the protection of birds.
In cooperation with the local people
they planted crops, and constructed an irrigation system.
Then they hired some of the local people to run the farm on a long-term basis.
The local name of the Abbotti Cockatoo is Beka.
Cashew, papaya, mango, banana, and coconut
all good for both people and parrots, are grown in “Beka Park”.
A portion of the food is consumed by people living on the island
and a portion is reserved for the parrots.
Today, there are about 24 Abbotti Cockatoos
and thanks to the continuous collaborative efforts of the community and the project
their number is slowly growing.
Dwi and Dudi founded the sister organization of the Indonesian Parrot Project
called Konservasi Kakatua Indonesia, or KKI, in 2007
in collaboration with IPP.
Without them, the project could not operate.
Dwi manages the community projects including education
while Dudi is responsible for the field research.
Along with his other duties, he studies the Abbotti Cockatoo.
The flat terrain of Masakambing, leaves it vulnerable to the rising sea level
caused by global climate change.
Another problem on the island is not an uncommon one nowadays:
deforestation.
Only half of the island’s forest still stand.
Human populations always find wood useful
both for construction and cooking fuel.
The best wood on the island is the mangrove
cockatoos think so as well
it is their preferred nesting tree
its flowers are also an important food source for the birds.
Moreover, the mangrove forests serve as buffers
protecting the island against the rough sea.
They also attract fish, crabs, shrimp, and other creatures
that provide food and income for the mainly fishing community.
So Bonnie, Dwi and Dudi initiated a mangrove-planting project on the island.
Several times a year, local children get together
and with the supervision of adults
contribute to the reforestation of their island in a playful way.
They learn about sustainability.
They learn how people and the wildlife
will benefit from their acts in the long-term.
In 2004, the IPP project built a rehabilitation center
on the island of Seram in the region of the Moluccas
to help parrots confiscated from the illegal trade recover from the trauma
and potential diseases until they are ready to be released back into the wild.
Kembali Bebas is Indonesian, and it means “return to freedom”.
We have seen almost every species of parrots here, Indonesian parrot
including those that are not indigenous to this area
because of the confiscators from the illegal trade.
And as of October 2015, we released about
1200-1300 birds back into the wild.
Now that doesn’t sound like a significant amount of birds
but the point that’s more important is it’s a message of conservation.
When you are working with people
and trying to teach them about the value of their birds and
why this is important.
They don’t believe that these birds have any value.
They think it’s just something you sell or buy.
But when they realize that somebody will go to all this work
to release this bird back into the wild, and have everybody come and see it
it elevates that thing.
So it’s a strong conservation message.
Maybe we don’t really affect the population too much
but it sends a message to the people
and that’s one of the most important things we do.
And lucky birds get to go back.
It’s called the soft release.
That’s under IUCN guidelines
and that’s really important to us, to do it the right way.
So we put up supplementary feeding platforms
and they might be on the sides of the cage, or in the end
and we put them up there as soon as the birds go in the forest.
Every day we put food out there, so they know it’s there.
Every day when we do feed the birds, we do it in the morning or night
so there’s as little human interaction as possible.
And then when the time comes
we bring the local community together in blinds
we all hide, we have a rope to open the cage, and it’s their choice.
If they wanna go out, they can go out
sometimes they don’t wanna go out
they can stay there as long as they want.
And we will continue the extra feeding until no birds come back.
As trappers had the most experience with the birds in the region
Bonnie and her colleagues trained former trappers
to be caretakers in the rehabilitation center.
It is easy to be proud of something when we know it is exceptional
and others express their admiration or love toward it.
But on a tiny, isolated island
there is no feedback from the outside world about the uniqueness
and value of the cockatoos and their beautiful habitat.
Since the beginning, Stewart and Bonnie recognized
that no conservation project could succeed
without education of the local people
who share their environment with the parrots.
That is why they developed
the Conservation, Awareness and Pride education program, or CAP.
Children learn to appreciate not only the cockatoos and other wildlife
but also the forests, and along with it, their own homeland.
They can communicate with other children from far-away places.
With children, who are much richer in a material way
but who have never experienced seeing the parrots
the forests, the sea and the islands
the world of the children of these small villages.
And so, with communication
local children gain awareness of the perspectives of others
and they gain a sense of pride
about their community and environment.
Next to education, it is tourism that helps local people realize
how exceptional their home is.
That is why IPP developed its ecotourism program.
It is a small-scale project, with high impact.
The tourists also contribute to cultural exchange
and income creation by staying in the homes of local people.
The local people can see by the tourists’ reactions
that they live in a very special place.
This mutual enrichment benefits both parties.
Through ecotourism, the project has also spread to the Komodo Island
renowned for the iconic, dinosaur-like creature
with venom in its saliva, the Komodo Dragon.
The Komodo Island is also home
to the eastern subspecies of the Yellow-crested Cockatoo
one of the closest relatives of the Abbotti Cockatoo.
The young lizards are terrifying hunters in the eyes of the birds.
Juvenile dragons spend as much time as possible up in the trees
so that they don’t end up in the stomachs of the older dragons.
While up in trees, they use their small size to their advantage
and sneak into the nest hollows...
a terrible fate for the cockatoo chicks.
It is somewhat ironic
that it was the existence of this lizard that protected the island
its habitats, and its many species, including the cockatoos.
Thanks to the presence of the Komodo Dragon
which attracts tens of thousands of tourists each year
the Sulphur-crested Cockatoo survived on the islands.
Stewart was one of the most amazing people I’ve ever met.
He graduated from Yale with honors.
He had over 150 published scientific papers on diabetes and endocrinology.
He gave his entire profession up in 1999
to work with the birds, and went into it a 100%.
Dr. Stewart Metz requested that his ashes be scattered
in one of his favorite places, the village of Masihulan in Seram
near the birds that he loved so much.
For more than three decades, before he arrived in Indonesia
he was a physician.
He saved human lives.
Indonesia changed his path in certain ways.
But some things stayed the same.
He continued to value life
the lives of humans, the lives of parrots, and of other creatures.
He turned poachers into nature conservationists
he helped captured and traumatized birds find their freedom again
and he helped many children and adults
appreciate and take pride in their heritage and environment.
The project and partnerships that he initiated carry on his legacy
and continue to save lives...
Lives of birds, of forests, and of people.
