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Introduction
Globally, illegal or black markets supply a large part of the pet parrot trade both nationally and internationally (CCAAN 2005). These illegal markets trade in many types of wildlife and from many parts of the world. Live animals are captured in native habitats and sold as pets or for research, or are killed and their parts sold for medicines, food, clothing, and accessories (Wagener 2001). This illegal worldwide wildlife trade is estimated by Interpol to be valued at US$10 billion every year and is the third biggest illegal trade in the world only surpassed by guns and drug trafficking (CCAAN 2005) and parrots are often a significant part of this illegal traffic (e.g. Wagener 2001, Herrera and Hennessey 2007). Illegal trade is thought to contribute to the threatened status of 66 parrot species worldwide including 27 in South America, where it is believed to have caused the probable extinction in the wild of Spix's Macaw Cyanospitta spixii (Birdlife 2008, IUCN 2008).
In Peru in the 1960s and early 1970s there was a large international and national demand for wildlife and no legal controls (Rosales et al. 2007). Despite passage in the mid-1970s of some local laws restricting wildlife trade, parrot traffic flourished in the 1980s due to huge demand from developed countries (Rosales et al. 2007). As a result, the Peruvian government created new laws to improve control of the wildlife trade. Principally the Ley Forestal y de Fauna Silvestre No 27308 from the Instituto Nacional de Recursos Naturales - INRENA (the Peruvian government organization in charge of the protection of flora and fauna in the country). This law includes in its articles, regulations for the commercialisation of legal wild species, minimum requirements for their harvest, collection and transportation, and establishes a maximum collection quota for each species from their natural environment. This quota is set by INRENA and published each year in the government newspaper. In 2007 and 2008 there were seven parrot species listed for legal wildlife trade: Mitred Parakeet Aratinga mitrata, Scarlet-fronted Parakeet A. wagleri, Dusky-headed Parakeet A. weddellii, Cobalt-winged Parakeet Brotogeris cyanoptera, Tui Parakeet B. santicthomae, Canary-winged Parakeet B. versicolorus and Pacific Parrotlet Forpus coelestis (El Peruano 2007); trade in all other...