Sorry Michael, but there are precedents that suggest hobbyists can be an
important conservation resource.
1) A peat bog in Northern England restored by volunteers and repopulated
with native CPs from hobbyists collections. It wasn't a stunning
success AFAIK because hobbyists can't suddenly come up with thousands of
D. rotundifolia with a couple of months notice, but the plants provided
were a start.
2) A leading UK botanic garden had a scheme whereby succulents that were
too boring to display in its show houses were given to enthusiasts to
preserve in their collections, on the understanding that the garden
could reclaim material as and when necessary for conservation and
analysis purposes. I haven't heard anything of this scheme for a long
time so it may have ceased.
3) A species long considered extinct from Central America due to loss of
habitat was found many years later in a private collection in the UK.
It is now being bulked up by a US Botanic Garden to ensure it never
comes so close to lights out again, both by distribution to other
botanic gardens and by populating a new protected location close to
where it was originally wiped out. I'm kicking myself because the name
of the plant is on the tip of my tongue, but I think it is a Fuchsia.
I believe that some of the pygmy Drosera in my collection are now
extinct in the wild, and more are likely to follow through loss of
habitat. I certainly hope that they have some conservation value, even
if wild populations cannot be established in the short term until the
Australian government give greater protection from farmers.
NigelH