The strong culture of keeping songbirds for singing competitions in brazil increases demand for these species from the wild

This Cooperative Agreement award is funded by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service through the Combating Wildlife Trafficking Federal Grant Program (CFDA 15.679). The $141,759 project, with a period of performance from August 1, 2024 to July 31, 2027, aims to contribute to the conservation of 10 songbird species targeted for illegal trade in northern Brazil. The key objectives are to characterize the songbird supply chain, examine demand, evaluate conservation strategies, and co-create recommendations to reduce the illegal trade and its impact on vulnerable human populations. The project will focus on 4 urban centers and surrounding rural areas in northern Brazil known for high songbird demand and trafficking routes. The prime awardee is Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, which will collaborate with government agencies, universities, and NGOs to inform Brazil's National Action Plan for Amazonian Bird Conservation.

Low enforcement ability and weak governance create management challenges especially in northern brazil which has international borders with several countries and the lowest number of agents from public environmental institutions. Northern brazil also has the largest proportion of the vulnerable human population (e.g. high poverty rates lack of economic opportunities) creating socioeconomic challenges. These factors contribute to making the financial benefits of participating in the illegal songbird trade more attractive. The proposed project will contribute to the conservation of ten species of songbirds targeted for trade for singing competitions and listed as priority songbird species in the species conservation catalyst fund (sccf) in northern brazil. Of these 10 species at least four species (sporophila maximiliani s. Americana s. Minuta and s. Schistacea) have declining populations according to the international union for conservation of nature (iucn) with illegal trade being one of the factors responsible for local extinctions or reductions in these species. Our long term goal is to achieve stable populations of the target species. Our mid term goal is to reduce the illegal and unsustainable collection of songbirds for singing competitions by 50 percent by 2030. To work toward these goals we propose 4 intermediate goals for this project (1) characterize the supply chain (2) examine the demand for songbirds (3) evaluate potential conservation strategies (testing different messages evaluating the feasibility of captive breeding to supply the market and contribute to songbird conservation) and (4) CO create recommendations and strategies with interested groups aimed at reducing the demand for illegally obtained songbirds and reducing the dependence on the illegal trade by vulnerable human populations. These intermediate goals will be essential in developing effective strategies to address conservation and social concerns around the trade of songbirds for singing competitions. We will focus on 4 locations in northern brazil including urban centers and surrounding rural areas BOA vista (roraima state) macapa (amapa state) manaus (amazonas state) and belem (para state). We will focus on these locations because urban centers are known for their high demand for wildlife including songbirds. These places are well connected by road and river systems with easy access to natural areas where songbirds are markets and international borders known to be routes for wildlife trafficking. Our project team and collaborators include government employees from environmental agencies universities and non governmental organizations. Our project will directly inform management priorities and actions for the national action plan (pan) for amazonian bird conservation. Our project will contribute to objective 3 of this plan which is to reduce the illegal removal of target bird specimens from nature. We will engage with the pan working group throughout the project and inform the next steps of their plan. We also meet each semester with our collaborators from the brazilian institute of environment and renewable natural resources (ibama which is the environmental enforcement agency) to discuss project progress and get their feedback so that results from our work are relevant to the agency. Finally we will convene an advisory committee for the project composed of employees from environmental agencies non governmental organizations universities and representatives of people who participate in the trade of songbirds (e.g. hunters breeders trainers competitors). This will be essential to evaluate our project progress adapt our work to meet the needs of interested groups and ensure that our project is relevant for conservation and social outcomes in the region.