A new policy brief by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC) has found that the illegal trade in SA’s endangered plants from small-scale, opportunistic harvesting into more organised and transnational operations threatens the country’s rich biodiversity heritage.
The report by the Geneva based outfit, which is funded by the EU, made several findings, which include that endangered plants are being systematically taken out of the wild in SA to meet “consumer demand in Europe, the US and Asia, in a trade that has become more organised, commercialised and transnational”.
The study finds that about 650 unique SA succulent species are implicated in illicit trade and that corruption and bribery facilitate the trade, while payments increasingly flow through cryptocurrency platforms to obscure financial trails.
It says that many of these species occur only in highly localised habitats, making them especially vulnerable to overharvesting, while their hardy, drought-resistant qualities make them well-suited to international trafficking.
“While some of these plants have local cultural or medicinal value, the overwhelming majority of the legal and illegal trade in SA indigenous species feeds demand for ornamental use overseas, particularly in Europe (notably Czechia, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany), the US and Asia (primarily China, Japan and South Korea),” the study finds.
Online platforms fuel trafficking boom
The study notes that criminal actors have adapted to enforcement measures, engaging in “province hopping” to exploit legislative differences between the Western and Northern Cape.
Online platforms and social media marketplaces have become central conduits for this trade, allowing traffickers to reach international buyers directly, evade detection and advertise plants under coded language or vague descriptors, the study finds.
The Oorlogskloof Nature Reserve, between the towns of Vanrhynsdorp, Western Cape, and Nieuwoudtville, Northern Cape, has been flagged as the jurisdiction where exploitation of endangered plants has been swift and severe.
Since August, 15,502 plants are estimated to have been illegally removed from the reserve, with more than half the surveyed population lost in a single year.
Syndicates switch between wildlife crimes
The GI-TOC says there is evidence that the same syndicates involved in plants sometimes traffic rhino horn, ivory, abalone, drugs and firearms, indicating that “established criminal networks may switch commodities opportunistically”.
The report highlights examples in which the same criminals targeting SA flora have also been found sourcing protected plants in other countries, including Dudleyas in California, US.
“The illegal trade also blurs considerably with the legal plant market. Wild-harvested plants may be laundered through legitimate nurseries, falsely labelled as artificially propagated, or even exported with falsified phytosanitary certificates that are meant to certify plant health,” the report says.
“Between 2010 and 2018, for example, 33,237 live Avonia quinaria specimens were exported from a single SA nursery, with most thought to have been illegally harvested wild plants falsely declared as artificially propagated.”
A growing threat to ecosystems
The effects of the illegal plant trade extend far beyond the disappearance of rare plant species, as the activities destabilise entire ecosystems, while critically endangered plants face eradication.
“SA ranks among the world’s most biodiverse countries, home to three globally recognised biodiversity hotspots with exceptionally high levels of endemism. But a growing illicit trade in the country’s indigenous flora is placing this natural heritage at risk,” the brief says.
“While illegal plant trafficking is a global phenomenon — from endangered cactuses in Mexico to orchids in Southeast Asia, and succulents in California, Madagascar and Namibia — SA has become particularly affected, given its wealth of rare and unusual plants, concentrated largely in two biomes: the Succulent Karoo and Cape Floristic Kingdom.”
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