Al

I have no argument with anything you said.

CITES is an issue primarily for importers and exporters. But I recall cases
where vendors couldn't get their plants across the border when they visited
an orchid society here as a guest speaker. That was a major disappointment
because they had some very interesting plants. And I can see it as a
potential problem for collectors in one country wanting to take plants to
shows in another country. I'd expect that if I, as a Canadian collector and
not a vendor, wanted to attend an orchid show in New York, CITES could be an
issue for me if the plants I wanted to show, or have judged, we subect to
CITES restrictions.

At the last orchid society meeting I attended, several breeders, in
discussing the impact of CITES on their business, noted both that the
Canadian officials seemed to want documentary proof that vendors needed to
be able to prove that the parent plants of a given cross are legal (if
they're species protected by CITES), and that they were not provided with
documentation proving the legality of the seedlings they'd bought from which
they wanted to select breeding stock. They were worried that they'd not be
able to prove that the breeding stock they'd bought from a vendor that
imported the plants into Canada originally was legal.

For me it isn't an issue since I have no plans on taking any of my plants
across any border any time soon.

When I referred to documentation, I was thinking only of collectors who may
need to take some of their plants across a border for whatever reason, and
commercial operations that may be involved directly or indirectly in
international trade.

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