I will be surprised enough to faint if the US gov't provides any such
funding. But if they actually did, the AOS would not be the folks to manage
it. I don't get down there often, only when I have something I think might
be worthy of submitting to the judges when they meet once a month (the two
rarely coincide). But in the last few trips, I've seen Dendrobiums planted
in the ground, in full sun, outside the building (dying, of course), a gift
shop full of cool-growing Miltoniopsis, which don't have a prayer in the
hands of a south Florida hobbyist, labelled only "Miltonia Hybrid," and
numerous other grossly inappropriate practices. So I certainly wouldn't
want to see the AOS in charge of any such program.

The sad facts are that, even assuming the treaty could be modified to permit
it, it's going to cost $$$ to rescue the plants currently being destroyed,
and use some of them to produce and grow artificially-propagated plants to
ease the demand on wild collection. It's also going to require qualified
personnel. Neither donations nor tax $$ allocations have been able to meet
those conditions for a long time now, but it seems that no one is willing to
let the process pay for itself by granting permits to anyone who might be
able to do it at even a small profit. So, they continue to be destroyed.
Kenni

"Jack" wrote in message
oups.com...
Just wondering what is CITES, if it cost so freeking much, why doesn't
customs fund a genome project for orchids, or for that matter provide
funding to AOS for a project, then they could do a relativly cheep test
and find out, I mean the Fish and Game lab in Oregon has been doing the
same thing for 20 years

Jack

but don't mind me, I still have problems keeping my orchids alive