BOTANICAL GARDENS: Kirstenbosch: Drowning in neglected poached plants
The plants were stolen from the wild, rescued by the state, then delivered into another kind of danger. Inside Kirstenbosch’s greenhouses, South Africa’s plant-poaching crisis has become a grim question: what happens when confiscation saves plants only long enough for them to die?
South Africa's Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden is overwhelmed with hundreds of thousands of plants confiscated from illegal poaching operations. These rare and slow-growing succulents, often dug from fragile ecosystems, are meant for international trade driven by collectors and online demand. Despite being rescued from poachers, the sheer volume of seized plants has led to a crisis within the garden's greenhouses, raising concerns about their long-term survival and the effectiveness of conservation efforts.
This situation highlights a critical gap in conservation efforts, where the confiscation of illegally trafficked plants may not be followed by adequate resources for their care, potentially leading to the loss of rare species despite intervention.
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