More plant rustling Solved

[Terry S.]

The profits to be made from some succulent plants in the Far East are certainly leading to threats to the plants in the wild. This press release from the South African police has recently appeared:

https://www.saps.gov.za/newsroom/msspee ... ?nid=20625

I believe that the plants in question were mainly conophytums.

[Stuart]

Glad something is being done but a £7000 fine between four isn't going to be a huge deterrent in view of the prices some of these plants are selling for.'

Stuart

[Terry S.]

I think the fine was per person, plus there was the "donation" to Nature Conservation. However the amount of the fine was still VERY low in relation to the price those plants would have made in China.

[conolady]

It’s a disgrace. Even more so since I can see remarkably little condemnation of it on FaceBook plant groups when the Chinese ‘replies’ were posted. Mind you, there are obviously habitat-collected plants often for sale at shows and sales here from a well-known seller and folk are still buying them, however flimsy the explanations of how they were come by...

[Echinocactus123]

In my opinion, as they are endangered the punishment should be more than a fine and a year or two in jail. The plants are just as living as us.

[conolady]

In my opinion, as they are endangered the punishment should be more than a fine and a year or two in jail. The plants are just as living as us.

Exactly. Sam Shi and his buddies took thousands of plants worth £1.5 million, the paper said. A mutual ‘friend’ confirmed this on FB. The locals were quoted as saying that they had been very good for local business!

[AnTTun]

I think first estimation of plants' value was around 1 000 000 rands (70 000 USD?). They took thousands and thousand and thousands of conophytums from the field...