St Lucia parrot  (Amazona versicolor)

This parrot is threatened by the dramatic changes that have been taking place in St Lucia. The island’s human population is growing at a significant rate, which has increased the pressure on the forest’s resources. Logging and forest clearing for agriculture and development has dramatically reduced the availability of this bird's habitat, food sources and nesting sites (4). Data indicates that in 1950, there was 295 km² of available habitat, but this has been reduced considerably since the mid-1970s (2). Natural disasters, such as hurricanes, also kill many birds (2). An additional threat is the hunting of this parrot, despite hunting being banned. Recently there have been proposals to lift the ban on hunting within forests, which would be disastrous for the St Lucia parrot (2).

The plight of St Lucia’s only parrot was recognised in the 1970s, and conservation programmes sprung into place. These concerted efforts have managed to reverse the parrot’s decline, and it is now slowly recovering. In 1979, the year of St Lucia’s independence, this parrot became the island’s National symbol, which dramatically increased local awareness of the species (5). A ban on hunting within protected forests was secured, and in 1975 a captive-breeding programme was established on the island. Captive-breeding of this species has been successful and, in 1995, 19 young birds had fledged. Conservation targets for the future aim to build on the successes of the captive-breeding programme, maintain and enforce the hunting bans in the protected areas, and conduct research surveys into the feeding and breeding ecology of these beautiful birds (4).