> Dream on. Unregulated collecting is still going on (for orchids, cacti,
> CP's, animals of all kinds, in short, anything that brings in a lot of
> cash). Habitat destruction is for many collectors their way of sweettalking
> their actions.
> The trouble is the mentality. Many an amateur will prefer a wild plant, even
> though it might die within a week(!) above a cultivated one.
> In our orchid nursery we experience a lot of these situations. If only we
> could make our in vitro orchid seedlings look like wild collected plants
> then we could ask 3 to 4 times more for our plants and we would sell them a
> lot quicker. If only we could !!!!
This might be a problem with orchid collectors many of them having
experienced times when huge import shipments were the usual way of
getting plants. However it certainly is not true for CP-collectors.
Most of the bigger collections are fairly young and in case of
Nepenthes many of these plants originate from tissue culture,
cuttings or seeds.
Only one case is generally known when Nepenthes plants were collected in
a large (=population threatening) scale by a person from Brunei.
However with the coming of CITES this business closed.
Bye
Andreas
Andreas Wistuba; Mudauer Ring 227; 68259 Mannheim; Germany
E-Mail: andreas.wistuba@rhein-neckar.de
Phone: +49-621-705471; Fax: +49-621-711307