Andrew,

I expect that most here are as interested in conservation as anyone else
active in conservation.

Your solution, while commendable, is inadequate for the obective of ensuring
continued survival of orchids in the wild. You need a more comprehensive
system. First, as you say, there is a need, in each country, for commercial
growers who have proper documentation proving that even when they sell
species, the plants sold are the product of a breeding program, and that who
ensure that they have al the requisite CITES documentation in place. They'd
also have to ensure that they supply the proper documentation to their
customers so that they and/or their customers can use the plants in their
own breeding programs and maintain the option of exporting their plants too.
Second, there is an urgent need to conserve habitat, and to design sampling
regimes that protect the species. For example, for species that can be
produced by cloning, sample only the meristem tissue for use in producing
clones that in turn can be used for breeding. And for genera such as the
catts, sample only a number of back bulbs from specimens that are large
enough to spare them, and then use the back bulbs to propagate the plants by
whatever means. With some plants, the only option would be to self specimen
plants, or cross neighboring planst of the same species/variety, and then
come back later to harvest the seeds (and this only with plants that have
many more than one flower so that natural propagation can occur too). With
the availability of portable GPS technology and hand-held computers, it
should be trivially easy to map orchid habitat so that those protecting the
habitat can easily find specimens they have found previously. Third, it
must be turned into an industry that people living in or near the habitat
that is to be protected can earn a living supporting the orchid industry
while concommitantly protecting the habitat. I'd expect that if the local
residents have a vested interest in protecting both the orchids and their
habitat, they'd help in such conservation efforts. Conservation
organisations have only two general options in this regard; they can help
improve the situation of the people living in or near the areas to be
protected, and work with them, or they can try to maintain a running battle
with them to the end of either fighting a losing battle or exterminating the
local residents (something I regard as reprehensible). No matter how much I
value orchids or the habitat in which they live, I value people more. My
impression of many environmental activists here is that they have little
regard for the people living in areas they want to protect, often describing
them in terms one would use to describe mortal enemies.

Your option of producing so many orchids that there is little incentive to
deal in illegal orchids is a good one. However, unless embedded in a broader
system that includes enabling the trade in orchids (and indeed other exotic
organisms) in a manner that is consistent with, and supports the objectives
of CITES, as well as having as the top priority the objective of meeting the
needs of, and improving the living standards of, the people living next door
to the orchids we want to protect, it can not ultimately acheive the
objective of protecting wild orchids,

And you may want to lighten up a bit. For the vast majority of people,
their only option for supporting orchid conservation in particular, and
conservation in general, is to support, by buying plants from, vendors who
are involved in conservation and by joining those societies they can find
that are involved in conservation, not to mention lobbying politicians to
support conservation initiatives. Most orchid "consumers" will lack both
the means and the expertise required to get conservation done right.

Cheers,

Ted

--
R.E. (Ted) Byers, Ph.D., Ed.D.
R & D Decision Support Solutions
http://www.randddecisionsupportsolutions.com/
Healthy Living Through Informed Decision Making