{"id":295233,"date":"2025-03-10T23:19:06","date_gmt":"2025-03-10T23:19:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newhampshiredigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/10\/a-unique-poaching-crisis-takes-root-in-south-africa\/"},"modified":"2025-03-10T23:19:06","modified_gmt":"2025-03-10T23:19:06","slug":"a-unique-poaching-crisis-takes-root-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newhampshiredigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/10\/a-unique-poaching-crisis-takes-root-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"A unique poaching crisis takes root in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"


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When you think of \u201cwildlife trafficking,\u201d you probably think of exotic animal products \u2014 ivory, rhino horns, shark fins.<\/p>\n

You probably don\u2019t think of succulents.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet these unique plant species have been at the center of a growing poaching problem.<\/span><\/p>\n

An arid region along South Africa\u2019s western coast \u2014 the aptly named Succulent Karoo \u2014 is home to a veritable endlessness of small succulent species found nowhere else on Earth. Heightened interest in the area and its remarkable flora is now threatening the very existence of these tiny, humble plants, Adam Welz reports<\/a> in YaleEnvironment360:<\/span><\/p>\n

From a car window, the Succulent Karoo can appear drab and barren. But get down on your hands and knees, and it transforms into a wonderland of living treasures \u2014 a wonderland that has in the last six years become the target of transnational smuggling networks focused on its unique flora. Millions of plants have been illegally dug from this area, resulting in the functional extinction of at least eight species, with hundreds more species being pushed toward the same fate.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a9 John Martin<\/span><\/p>\n

A flower field in Succulent Karoo.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a reason: Due to the harsh environs they live in, succulents grow very slowly \u2014 it can take up to seven years for some plants to grow to a saleable size, Welz writes. Global interest in the plants \u2014 fed by social media and supercharged by the <\/span>
\n houseplant craze<\/a> of the COVID era \u2014 led to increased demand for already-mature plants.<\/span><\/p>\n

The region already had criminal networks to move illicit diamonds, Welz writes, and it was not difficult for such groups to transition to a different product to smuggle.<\/span><\/p>\n

Conservationists and law enforcement are working on the problem.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been directly involved in efforts to stem the tide of poaching,\u201d said Malinda Gardiner of Conservation South Africa (the local affiliate of Conservation International). For a recent project, Gardiner\u2019s team developed community strategies to combat poaching, working with people in villages where succulent trafficking was high; this effort has informed South Africa\u2019s national anti-poaching efforts, she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet solutions to the problem remain in short supply, Welz writes:<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>One reason, experts say, is that markets for particular plants can shift rapidly and are often poorly understood. Protection policies are often formulated on the basis of unsupported assumptions or too little data and implemented too late, after consumer demand and poaching has risen to harmful levels. Legal growers often can\u2019t react to increased market demand in time, particularly for slow-growing species.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Time will tell if authorities can tackle the problem \u2014 or, as seems possible, if buyers\u2019 interest in these singular succulents simply shifts to other plant species in time.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read the story here<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Bruno Vander Velde is the managing director of storytelling at Conservation International. Want to read more stories like this? Sign up for email updates<\/a>. Also, please consider supporting our critical work<\/a>.
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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When you think of \u201cwildlife trafficking,\u201d you probably think of exotic animal products \u2014 ivory, rhino horns, shark fins. You probably don\u2019t think of succulents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":295234,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[189],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-295233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nature"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newhampshiredigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newhampshiredigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newhampshiredigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newhampshiredigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newhampshiredigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newhampshiredigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newhampshiredigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newhampshiredigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newhampshiredigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newhampshiredigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}