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illegal orchids or orchid smuggling.....
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 |
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