Re: Smuggling Once More.
Wayne Forrester (forrestr@mendel.Berkeley.EDU)
Mon, 4 Mar 1996 07:59:36 -0800 (PST)
>
> Furthermore, to blame hobbyist and their commercial suppliers for a
> depletion of natural habitats is far fetched if not ridiculous.
> Plants (and animals) are endangered. But they are endangered, mainly through
> the (legal???) destruction of their habitats. If one studies the
> market closely (and that is so for CP's as well as for orchids),
> there just is no demand as high as to be able to endanger a
> population, let alone the species.
>
Not entirely true. It is often reported both in articles in the
journal of the American Orchid Society, and in books on orchids, that
several species of Asian Paphiopedilum are nearly extinct in the wild solely
due to over-collecting to supply hobbyists.
Wayne Forrester