Wednesday, February 27. 2008
Threatened Species and Poaching
Poaching is a problem throughout the world. Many countries may have tough laws against poaching and yet lax enforcement. Many of these countries are far far away. Others, not so far.
more after the break....
Cactus poaching is booming in Mexico, helping to make wildlife species trafficking the third-largest smuggling industry in Mexico behind drugs and guns.
The trade is fueled by private collectors and the burgeoning xeriscape movement in the U.S. South and Southwest.
Rare cacti species can fetch hundreds of dollars on black markets from the United States to Japan.
Mexico's deserts are so ravaged by cactus poachers that researchers no longer publish the location of new species they find, lest eager collectors plunder the newfound cacti....
The trade is fueled by private collectors and the burgeoning xeriscape movement in the U.S. South and Southwest.
Rare cacti species can fetch hundreds of dollars on black markets from the United States to Japan.
Mexico's deserts are so ravaged by cactus poachers that researchers no longer publish the location of new species they find, lest eager collectors plunder the newfound cacti....
more after the break....
More than one third of Mexico's cactus species are considered at risk of disappearance, according to the Mexican government.
"There are specialized collectors who are willing to spend big money and are interested in the rarest species," said Rolando Bárcenas Luna, cactus expert at the Autonomous University of Querétaro. "And they only want plants from the desert. They're not interested in plants from nurseries, which they consider artificial."
Experts say Texas is both a destination and a transshipment point for illegally exported Mexican cacti....
To get a better idea of the precarious lives of Mexican succulents, consider the case of Ariocarpus bravoanus, a small, fleshy cactus that blooms with dramatic purple flowers.
The cactus was discovered by chance about 20 years ago in an isolated arroyo in the state of San Luis Potosi.
Although the academics who discovered it tried to keep the location hidden, word filtered out.
"The biggest plants disappeared quickly," Bárcenas said. "The population was reduced almost to the point of extinction by collectors."
"There are specialized collectors who are willing to spend big money and are interested in the rarest species," said Rolando Bárcenas Luna, cactus expert at the Autonomous University of Querétaro. "And they only want plants from the desert. They're not interested in plants from nurseries, which they consider artificial."
Experts say Texas is both a destination and a transshipment point for illegally exported Mexican cacti....
To get a better idea of the precarious lives of Mexican succulents, consider the case of Ariocarpus bravoanus, a small, fleshy cactus that blooms with dramatic purple flowers.
The cactus was discovered by chance about 20 years ago in an isolated arroyo in the state of San Luis Potosi.
Although the academics who discovered it tried to keep the location hidden, word filtered out.
"The biggest plants disappeared quickly," Bárcenas said. "The population was reduced almost to the point of extinction by collectors."
The plants are coming through the US. I know people ask us whether we're collecting from the wild, and we most definitely do not, but how can you be sure if you ask your local nursery about a rare plant and they say it was nursery grown?
Often, one can tell with some by what they look like. Many caudiciform plants in the wild will be much slower growing than in greenhouses, and wild-collected specimens will be smaller while showing the effects of age. Another thing to look for is does your nursery have a full range of sizes, not just the large specimens?
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