Oh dear, here we go again. Nik Fahmi, in his New Straits Times article:
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/nst/Sunday/National/20061217094927/Article/local1_html has become the latest in a long list of people (all of whom really ought to know better) to confuse a National issue with an International one. This is a real pity because Nik made some pertinent points in the article (eg, the effect of Orang Asli activities, the need for a system of licensing to collect orchids in logging areas or areas gazetted for development), but he went and diluted their impact with some CITES-bashing nonsense. Nik said: "because of CITES regulations, governments or companies may clear thousands of hectares of land in the name of development but, ironically, it is illegal to go into these areas and collect the orchids before they are destroyed". The fact is that there is nothing in any of the CITES provisions, resolutions, appendices, notifications or modifications by Conferences of Parties that makes any comment about the land-clearing actions of governments or companies, whether or not it is in the name of development. Similarly, CITES does NOT regulate whether or not Nik & his friends can go collecting in development areas. CITES is a set of protocols governing International trade, not a set of protocols about intra-national legislation. I suspect that Nik found it more convenient to blame his woes on an external organisation (CITES) rather than point the finger at the true culprit .... those in Malaysia who wrote the Malaysian laws. Unfortunately, by doing this, Nik has provided the lawmakers with an excuse not to make any changes .... "Alamak, that Fahmi man said it is CITES fault, so who can change, lah ?" Nik Fahmi said "if the CITES rules against the trade in artificially propagated wild orchids are relaxed, growers would not resort to buying illegally collected orchids on the black market". and: "A species will have a better chance of survival in the care of orchid enthusiasts, rather than leaving them to their own devices in the wild," Unfortunately, these statements (the Holy Grails of the Art. Prop. movement) are backed by lots and lots of emotive text, but very little in the way of hard data. Art. Prop. proponents will point to a solitary example of "saving" a truly rare species by these methods: Mexipedium xerophyticum. And I will counter with the numerous recent examples of truly rare species that have been collected to the point of near extinction in the name of orchid conservation. These include (among others), the well-known cases of Phragmipedium kovachii (Peru), Bulbophyllum echinolabium (Indonesia) and Paphiopedilum gigantifolium (Indonesia). From Peninsular Malaysia we have seen what happened to Bulbophyllum thiurum (the only known population was collected and sold before the name was even published) and Phalaenopsis appendiculata (the wild population was collected and sold within weeks of it's rediscovery, despite the "protection" of growing inside a National Park. Yes, I know that subsequent populations of each of the Malaysian species have been discovered.... they are the ones currently on sale in the nurseries. Not one of these orchid species was threatened by development. In each case the plants have been growing quite happily for tens or hundreds of thousands of years when left to their own devices in the wild .... but were wiped out almost overnight by those who collect on behalf of "orchid lovers" and the misguided people who believe that they can provide better conditions that the plant's natural habitat. To anyone who thinks a species will have a better chance of survival in their care than in the wild ..... your thinking is so short-term it is unbelievable. How will you care for your rare species after your death ? Or when the power gets cut during winter ? Or when your farm is swamped by a hurricane ? Or when the price of electricity rises so high you cannot afford heating ? You can provide no long-term guarantees of any kind ... so stop being presumptuous. Only the natural environment can provide a long-term solution; you cannot. Peter O'Byrne in Singapore _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) [email protected] http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
