17 July 2012 Last updated at 03:45 ET By Richard Black Environment correspondent, BBC News

The Solomon Islands has become a hub for "laundering" wild birds into the global captive-bred bird trade, says the wildlife trade watchdog Traffic.

Thousands of parrots, cockatoos and other exotic birds have been exported over the last 10 years, they report.

But officials say there are no major captive breeding units in the islands.

The Solomons recently joined CITES, the global wildlife trade convention, which sets different conditions for trading captive-bred and wild animals.

"Declaring exported birds as being captive-bred has all the hallmarks of a scam to get around international trade regulations," said Chris Shepherd, Traffic's deputy director for Southeast Asia.

Some of the 35 bird species exported from the Solomons are on the internationally recognised Red List of Threatened Species.

They include the Critically Endangered yellow-crested cockatoo (Cacatua sulphurea), and the chattering lory (Lorius garrulus) and blue bird of paradise (Paradisaea rudolphi), which are both categorised as Vulnerable.

Under CITES - the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species - all trade in the yellow-crested cockatoo is banned.

For the others, exports of wild-caught birds are strictly regulated.

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Solomons 'launders' exotic birds