DRC Releases Rescued African Grey Parrots Back To The Forest — A Rare Win For One Of The World’s Most Trafficked Birds

Fifty African grey parrots—birds famous for their intelligence and language mimicry—have just gone home. After a year of rehabilitation, the confiscated parrots were released in Maniema Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo, following a multi-agency operation that rescued them from the illegal wildlife trade. The release, first reported from Lubumbashi, is both a local triumph and a global signal that enforcement, care, and policy can still bend the curve for an Endangered species. This moment lands amid a policy sea-change inside the DRC. In mid-2025, the government fully protected African greys in national law, making it a criminal offense to capture, possess, sell, or transport the species. Conservation groups including the World Parrot Trust and IFAW praised the decree as overdue but essential in a country that has long been a sourcing hub for traffickers. Provincial authorities have begun to implement the shift too—Tshopo, for instance, set up a new parrot conservation center and moved to curb trade earlier this year. Taken together, these actions created the legal and logistical runway for releases like Maniema’s to happen—and to stick. To understand why this matters, remember the bigger picture. The African grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus) is listed as Endangered due to decades of capture for the pet trade—compounded by rapid habitat loss—which has driven steep declines across Central and West Africa. In fact, the global community shut the door on international commercial trade nearly a decade ago when CITES uplisted the species to Appendix I (effective Jan. 2, 2017), a category that bans commercial export of wild birds. The science hasn’t changed: without strong domestic enforcement and viable, protected habitats, wild populations continue to fall. What made this release possible on the ground was patient, unglamorous work. Local partners—led in this case by the Lukuru Foundation—stabilized the birds after seizure, treated injuries and malnutrition, and then reconditioned flight and foraging in aviaries designed to rebuild wild behaviors. Only after health checks, banding, and site assessments did the team green-light a soft release into suitable forest with ongoing post-release monitoring. It’s painstaking, expensive, and exactly what’s required to convert a seizure into conservation rather than a temporary reprieve. There’s a wider enforcement story here, too. Even with CITES protections in place, trafficking networks have persisted by routing birds through remote airstrips and river corridors, mixing wild-caught animals with ostensibly “legal” ones, and exploiting uneven provincial capacity. The DRC’s new nationwide ban gives rangers, customs officers, and courts a clear line to hold—no loopholes, no gray zones. Early reports show prosecutors are beginning to apply the law; the test now is consistency and scale. For anyone asking, “What comes next,” three things determine whether Maniema is a milestone or a blip. First, steady funding for rehabilitation and monitoring, so each confiscation can end with a release and survival data that improves the next one. Second, a tight border and market enforcement paired with community reporting—the combination that raises smuggling risks faster than traffickers can adapt. Third, forest protection: parrots need intact nesting trees and safe feeding grounds; releases must pair with habitat safeguards, or the birds will drift back toward people, traps, and trade. All of these are achievable inside the policy framework that the DRC has now set. This Maniema release is more than a feel-good clip of grey wings flashing into green. It’s policy meeting practice—a protected species, a national ban, a trained rehab team, and a forest ready to receive its lost birds. If the DRC and its partners keep stitching those elements together, “rescued parrots return to the wild” can go from headline to habit—and an Endangered icon might finally find its voice where it belongs: in the canopy.