all makes sense to Farr. "In the orchid world," he said, "people have been
killed. It's the equivalent of drug smuggling." Mr. Farr may have no
credentials/experience to make such a comment but the Pittsburgh Post
Gazette reporter should not be labeled. I do not know if people have been
killed over an orchid but it would come as no surprise .... people do stupid
things .... like write CITES laws for plants using similar criteria as they
used for animals."
-----
About nine years ago I met THE Michael Kovach at a Mid-America Congress in Kentucky. Among our conversations he told me of his experiences traveling in Vietnam to find orchid species. He said that he witnessed villagers being hired by internationals to go into areas and strip out every Paphiopedilum plant they could find. Michael told me he later regretted reporting the situation to Vietnamese authorities because the authorities reacted by rounding up some of the villagers and putting a bullet in their heads.
Ed Merkle
_________________________________________________________________
Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today - it's FREE! http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/
_______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) [email protected] http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
