Latest article on poaching in South Africa

[ChrisR]

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article ... ing-spree/

[iann]

Is it still getting worse? I noticed the latest Cactus World said that C. bachelorum has been essentially wiped out in the wild?

[ChrisR]

Better with conophytum Ian since they received CITES listing and I managed to get the Chinese CBCGDF involved. They are currently in the process of prosecuting one the worse culprits so it's been a great deterrent to all the others. The sale of wild conos has disappeared from Chinese social media and selling sites. So the South African locals, now educated about the value of succulent plants since the Chinese began ordering directly from them (and supply info where to go) have turned to bulbs, e.g, eriospermum, albuca, gethylis, etc, and to other geophytes.

And yes, unfortunately during the last four years a few niche endemic conos have been collected to extinction at their only known localities, bachelorum, crateriforme, regale, chrisolum, chrisocruxum, roodiae ssp.sanguineum, subterranum, mirabile and probably more I can't currently recall. That doesn't include 10,000+ achabense, acutum and others we never even realised existed in such numbers. And they are only the confiscated numbers from arrested poachers. No idea how many ended up in China and South Korea.

[colser]

Thank you, Chris.
Your anti-poaching work is inspiring.
I do hope that due to the longevity of the seeds, at least some of the depleted areas eventually re-populate