If this is Smuggling 201, is there going to be an essay test or is going to
be true and false? Can I just audit this coarse?

The first half of this article gave me the impression the author was writing
fluff. In the second part, he named and quoted sources and left me with the
general impression he only had a superficial understanding of his topic but
I was left with my opinions intact.

Why did Dr Lim go to jail? In my opinion, the answer is, he went to jail
because he wanted to own plants in Britain that he could not legally own in
that country at the time he brought them across the border. He purchased
the plants from local markets in Malaysia. He knew he was breaking
import/export laws. He stated to the judge that his reason for bringing
them back was to protect them, not to profit from them. Why can't profit be
the motive to protect them?

Had he not purchased them, he rationalized, they would have died in their
own country; killed by Malaysians who collected them from the wild to sell
them. But, why did the people of Malaysia collect to the point of
extinction their precious native plants, if not to sell to them to people
just like Dr Lim?

CITES suggests that the governments own the plants in their borders and
decide their fate. There are problems with this idea and with the treaty
and it's enforcement. Some say orchid collectors ARE part of the problem.
Some say they could be part of the solution but CITES prevents them from
getting the plants to reproduce them in sufficient quantity to satisfy
demand of collectors.

Smuggling is smuggling.