March 2005
ProFauna helps to protect Moluccas White Cockatoos

The local government authority of North Maluku (Moluccas) has responded positively to the recommendations of ProFauna, a wildlife conservation society, to protect the population of native white cockatoos (Cacatua alba).  On 3^rd January 2005 the Deputy Governor of North Maluku, Prof H. Madjid Abdullah wrote to the Directorate General of Forest and Nature Conservation (PHKA) of the Department of Forestry to recommend that the North Moluccas native white cockatoos be given protected status.

The Governor’s recommendation is in direct response to the demonstration by 50  ProFauna activists and Biologist undergraduates from Khairun University, Ternate, on 31^st January 2005 in front of the Governor’s office.  The demonstrators demanded the authority take action to protect the population of white cockatoos in North Maluku from poaching.

Investigation by ProFauna and Yayasan Kamu Ternate in 2001-2002  revealed that approximately 550 white cockatoos (Cacatua alba) are being poached each year from Halmahera Island alone, traded locally and then smuggled to the large bird market at Pramuka, Jakarta. The poachers sell each cockatoo for Rp. 60,000 (US$7) to the local traders and in Jakarta each cockatoo will fetch at least Rp 500,000 (US$60). It is therefore a lucrative business. 

The continuous poaching of white cockatoos in North Maluku has decimated this parrot’s population where they used to be found in some villages in Halmahera Island.  ProFauna interviewed many villagers to investigate the history of specie population in its natural habitat.  It is believed that the main factor for this decimation in the last 10 years is due to unsustainable poaching.

With the issue of this recommendation from the North Maluku Governor to protect white cockatoos, it is hoped that the Ministry of Forestry will issue a legislation to protect the species nationally.