Motion 083

Over the past several years there has been an exponential increase in the number of succulent species being illegally traded, with large markets developing in Asia alongside consistent demand from European and North American markets. This is accompanied by the establishment of smuggling routes, often including transit countries, for “laundering” where customs enforcement and knowledge of foreign flora are limited. Online platforms play a significant role in facilitating the sale of trafficked plants, providing an easily accessible global market. Consumers range from naïve online purchasers, who lack awareness of the consequences of their purchasing behaviours, to specialist collectors who knowingly seek rare, novel or “authentic” wild-sourced specimens, and nurseries seeking new genetic material to supply the rapidly growing market for novel ornamental plants.

The Succulent Plant Illegal Trade Task Force, established in April 2024, has collated information on confiscated succulent plants from selected affected countries globally (South Africa, Mexico, Namibia, Madagascar), as well as from enforcement agencies in consumer countries in Europe, to quantify the illegal trade in succulent plants. Confiscations of 878 species range from a single plant per species to up to 3,000 specimens. The scale of the issue threatens the integrity of species genetics, populations, ecosystems, as well as human societies reliant on resulting services. Many succulent species that have been recorded as part of this illegal trade since 2019 have not previously been available in the ornamental horticultural trade. The illegal acquisition of these plants by nurseries and specialist collectors in consumer countries, and subsequent commercialisation, represents non-compliance of the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing under the Convention on Biological Diversity.

Although many succulent species are listed on CITES, listings are often reactive, triggered only after a species faces significant threats from illegal trade. This approach fails to pre-emptively protect species vulnerable to emerging trends in exploitation, especially those with highly restricted ranges that can easily be harvested to extinction in a short period of time. The rise of online platforms and global trade networks has facilitated the illegal trade of countless species. CITES has been criticised for being slow to react, allowing trafficking to outpace enforcement, however, we note that CITES has implemented Res Conf. 11.3 (Rev CoP19) on compliance and enforcement, which recommends engagement with eCommerce platforms (Paragraph 16) and parties are actively working on this resolution.

Botanic gardens are playing a crucial role as repositories for confiscated plants, in countries of origin. However, many lack the resources to manage the high volumes of plants being received. The many rare and threatened plants that botanic gardens hold are extremely vulnerable to theft, some of which are the last remaining specimens known for a particular species. Botanical gardens are, therefore, directly affected by the increased trade and are actively engaged in tackling this problem, although many recognise that much more needs to be done in order to ensure that large numbers of succulent plant species do not go extinct.