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The Black Market for Orchids Is Moving to Social Media, Study Says

Discussion in 'Everything Else Orchid' started by Brent W, Mar 18, 2016.

  1. Mar 18, 2016 #1
    Brent W

    Brent W Owner Staff Member

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    When people think of the illegal wildlife trade, it’s mostly elephant tusks and rhino horns that come to mind. But there is also a black market for wild orchids that, according to a new study, is increasingly moving onto social media.

    Some of these plants can fetch tens of thousands of dollars. Once, in an offline auction, a rare orchid sold for $150,000. TRAFFIC, a wildlife trade monitoring network, found that tens of thousands of flowers are traded illegally across international borders every year.

    “It’s very secretive,” Amy Hinsley, a member of the University of Kent’s Durrell Institute of Conservation, told Motherboard. “We know it's happening, but unlike the ivory trade, not much attention has been paid to it.”

    Photos of dead elephants are heartbreaking. They have inspired celebrity-endorsed campaigns aimed at stopping the slaughter of around 35,000 animals each year, according to numbers from a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Orchids, on the other hand, seem commonplace. Anybody can buy one at a flower shop or a grocery store. The problem is that people are buying wild-collected orchids, many of which are rare. Some are even endangered.

    The hottest sale items are orchids that can’t be mass-produced, such asPaphiopedilum kolopakingii. It’s a rare species of the popular lady's slipper orchid that grows naturally at high altitudes on rocky cliffs overlooking river gorges in Borneo. Recreating the conditions of its natural habitat is difficult, to say the least, so simply growing more of them elsewhere isn’t an option.

    “There are plenty of examples of species being over-collected almost to the point of extinction,” Hinsley said.

    She and her colleague David Roberts monitored a social media network, which they legally could not name, for mentions of orchids. They found that 22 to 46 percent of the posts included species that were most likely collected in the wild. Their findings were published earlier this week in Conservation Biology.

    Before the internet, these flowers were sold exclusively in open-air markets in countries such as Indonesia and Thailand or through private traders who were found by word of mouth. Now the trade has moved to eBay and various social media networks. Sellers range from casual collectors who pick up flowers in their spare time to serious traders who make a living by satisfying foreign buyers, many of whom are located in the United States, EU, and Australia.

    It’s illegal to sell orchids without a permit across international borders. Since you can’t get a permit to sell wild-collected orchids, all global trade in the flowers is technically forbidden. But it’s not a high priority for border officials and even if they spot a shipment of wild orchids, they have to be able to tell them apart from the mass-produced kind.

    Hinsley knows that shutting down the entire black market is a fool’s errand. She does hope, however, to convince social media companies to become more vigilant when it comes to shutting down illegal sales. Raising the public’s awareness of the problem could also boost resources committed to stopping the wild-collected orchid trade.

    Why should ordinary people care about this problem? Because wild orchids are so sensitive to environmental factors in very specific locations, they often serve as the canary in the coal mine to warn scientists when a habitat has degraded.

    “Plants have great ecological, cultural and economic value,” Hinsley said. “Even though they aren't fluffy or cute, we need to take threats to them seriously.”

    Source: http://motherboard.vice.com/read/th...-orchids-is-moving-to-social-media-study-says
     
  2. Mar 18, 2016 #2
    Pat Werner

    Pat Werner New Member

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    This is a big problem throughout Cenral America. The Contra War, 1980-1990 served to slow down the illegal exportation of Nicaraguan orchids, but things picked up after 1990. No easy solutions, and in some countries, things are somewhat picked over. About the only thing one can do is publicize the problem, make sure all the laws of CITES are followed, and do not buy questionable plants.
    Pat Werner
     
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  3. Mar 18, 2016 #3
    DaveH_SF

    DaveH_SF Member

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    In addition to illegal collection of rare species for growers, mass over-harvesting of orchids in some parts of the world is a major problem.
    I came across this article about this practice in the Churiya Hills area of Nepal:
    https://www.mountainfund.org/research/orchids_in_the_churiya_hills_and_their_survival_in_nepal.pdf
    As much as 5 tons of orchids per day are collected in that small area alone, and exported to China and India for medicinal purposes. Although in recent years conservation efforts by the WWF have made progress in forest management in Nepal, it's still a big problem.
     
    Last edited: Mar 18, 2016
  4. Mar 18, 2016 #4
    jai

    jai Orchid addict

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    It is a "hidden" crisis that many people don't know or care about its sad.
     
  5. Mar 18, 2016 #5
    jai

    jai Orchid addict

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    I know of a few people that get/buy wild orchids, even go on trips to Puerto Rico and collect orchids for their collections here in America.
    I wish they would not, unless they were breeding to put back in the wild.
     
  6. Sep 9, 2016 #6
    Kipper

    Kipper CoffeeCoffeeCoffee... Supporting Member

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    Being very new to this hobby (obsession) I would never knowingly purchase a wild collected orchid. But with that said I go crazy on ebay and have bought from Thailand, China, Ecuador and other places. I have even bought from reputable dealers in the states who have imported from places such a Madagascar and afterwards read articles on how rampant wild collecting is there. How would you guys advise a newbie on how to avoid such purchases or is it even possible?
     
  7. Oct 6, 2016 #7
    Gregg Zollinger

    Gregg Zollinger Active Member

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    Truly sad. I once read a book that had some examples of things similar. It is an awesome read. I is "Orchid Fever" by Susan Orlean
     
  8. Nov 4, 2017 #8
    Scott Tan

    Scott Tan New Member

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    Let me provide some insight here. We have CITES that states we can't trade in Appendix I orchids unless they're nursery propagated. AND on top of that in America (from what I heard), even flasks of these plants aren't allowed unless the parent is nursery propagated. How is that going to happen if the plant is well..have to come from the wild?

    If truth be known, the biggest reason of orchid population degradation is to put it truthfully, development and habitat destruction. This is where CITES actually works backwards in rare orchids. By banning trade wholesale of these rare species, it causes 2 things:

    1- Leaving orchids in situ in a place where sooner or later a bulldozer will come
    2- Raising the price of the orchid since it is 'Appendix I' and illegal, branding it as something everybody must get.

    I have personally seen a Dendrobium from the higher elevations in Irian jaya with its type locality wiped clean to plant acres and acres of oil palm. And this same sad scenario is repeated in Sarawak, Kalimanta, Sumatra, Java...and increasing parts of Papua New Guinea. And now even in Indo-china...where limestone karst that once held prized paphs are now mined and blown to pieces all for the sake for cement and sand for artificial beaches..

    Unfortunately, CITES when it comes to plants is still ill suited. What would have made more common sense is to allow a legalised collection of the plants from the country of origin or a listed nursery, allow them to propagate the plants in vitro and sell the flasks world wide. This is already done for orchids in Appendix II, but Appendix I like paphs (and new species of them), even flasks of them are banned from sale. This just makes people more determined to get the plants, and there is no way CITES can stop them all. You want to stop the trade in Appendix I? Legalize and control it...not ban it .

    Alas, the head honcho (and scientists such as these in the articles)in CITES had their heads stuck in the cloud and thinking all humans (orchid collectors) should bow before the tablet of Moses. We need realists deciding the legislature of CITES, not academics and idealists, or self proclaimed conservationists who have no idea what they're talking (or protecting) about.

    After all, what good did banning weed do in the end? #Justsaying
     
  9. Nov 4, 2017 #9
    Marni

    Marni Well-Known Member Staff Member Supporting Member

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    That is an Australian myth. It is my understanding that in most countries it is legal to sell a division of a collected plant as long as a viable piece of the plant remains in the country of origin.
     
  10. Nov 4, 2017 #10
    Ray

    Ray Orchid Iconoclast Supporting Member

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    The way it is supposed to work is that collected plants on appendices 2 or 3 may be commercially traded internationally. It is those on appendix 1 that can only be exported for research purposes. Any that are artificially propagated can be exported commercially. In all cases, the shipment must have been issued valid CITES documentation issued by the exporting nation's authorities.

    One of the issues with importing flasks into the US, which are artificially propagated and sterile by default, is that there have been occasions where the country of origin did not issue any such documents, so their trade was considered illegal to begin with. Another issue that CITES sets minimum criteria; the USFWS determines their own.
     
  11. Nov 4, 2017 #11
    Scott Tan

    Scott Tan New Member

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    Not quite, or some countries misinterpreted the ledger! I know for instance in the present, Thailand CITES is trying to crack down on the sale of flasks of newly discovered paph species like paph rungsuyriyanum and canhii. Partially as said, because the plants come from Laos/Vietnam and these countries at this point in time refuse to issue CITES (not to sure if they're signatory of CITES). Of course the plants are now spread across around the world, but sitting privately in people's collection and they can't be shown/benched....which on hind sight is kind of ridiculous

    Not to mention getting CITES docs and export docs could turn into an extremely time-consuming (and expensive) process. In the past I had to wait for 1 month+ just to get a CITES permit issued to import plants in from Indonesia.
     
  12. Nov 4, 2017 #12
    naoki

    naoki Well-Known Member

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    Marni is correct for App. II since they are considered as artificially propagated (e.g. cutting). Seeds are also exempt. I think this is the relevant part:
    https://www.cites.org/sites/default/files/document/E-Res-11-11-R17.pdf

    But I guess Scott is talking about App. I. For App. I, it has to be in vitro (p.4). Trading seeds requires CITES approval. Reading the CITES recommendation carefully, I notice there is an ambiguity. The definition of artificial propagation includes cutting. So you could get plants from the wild, grow them and make a new growth, put it in vitro, and it could become an exempt. They should define "in vitro" more precisely.

    In Canada, Japan, and Europe etc, P. rungsuriyanum etc. can be ok as long as they are in vitro and obtain the CITES permit from the departing country. They don't require the CITES to be traced to the original country. Their implementation is different from the US as Ray said.