1) The proposal is addressed to anyone that has an interest in the hobby or commercial trade.
Of course the management Authorities and CITES officials are two different groups but often officials within the management authorities sit on CITES committees. My complaints have to do with the entire system world wide. Let me ask you Peter, how many countries have you shipped orchids to on a commercial basis? Do you really know and understand all of the regulations in regards to exporting and importing form each countries point of view. Do you understand how much confusion there is country to country or how much time it takes to comply with these regulations? If the answer is that you haven't done those things then I suggest that you do not comment about something you know nothing about. 2) I am putting no spin on anything and if anything you are putting a spin on my proposal. Look at the mission statement again closely will you: http://www.cites.org/eng/com/SC/54/E54-06-1.pdf do you see where it says right at the top "Convention on international trade in endangered species of wild flora and fauna" ? Remember the world WILD please! Now look at the report on trade in artificially propagated plants here: http://www.cites.org/eng/cop/14/doc/E14-30.pdf . If you read through it you will see that in vitro cultures or seedlings of orchids whether they are species or hybrids are exempt from CITES regulations. You will also see that certain hybrids of Dendrobiums, Vandas, Phalaenopsis, cymbidiums and i believe now includes Cattleyas and Oncidiae intergeneric hybrids. These are exempt from CITES regulations as well under some tr. PLEASE read the rationale section on page 2 which already hints that "trade in various plant taxa has shifted away from wild collected specimens and today consists to an overwhelming proportion of artificially propagated specimens, often even improved for cultivation purposes by selection or altered by hybridization, and mass-produced on an industrial scale through the application of modern techniques (meristemming)." Read section 9 as well that talks about the effectiveness of such activities as reporting by the parties on all of the trade in art prop plants and what benefit there is from this to the conservation of WILD flora. As you can see, CITES are already thinking about changing things for the better and all I am trying to do is encourage them along. INDEED CITES PURPOSE IS TO REGULATE TRADE IN WILD SPECIMENS OF FLORA AND FAUNA ! What you are stating is that CITES wants to squeeze international trade and you specifically point me out as an example. To be honest though CITES really wants to squeeze trade in Wild specimens not artificially propagated ones. That does not mean me as I do not trade in wild plants and haven't for some time now. There is no need as we can produce or acquire seed raised plants. The SQUEEZE, as you call it is unfortunately being put on producers of artificially propagated plants as well as traders in wild specimens. There needs to be a distinction and a separation of the two. That is what my proposal is about. Jerry Lee Fischer Orchids Limited 4630 Fernbrook Lane N. Plymouth, Minnesota 55446 USA Toll-free: 1-800-669-6006 Local: 763-559-6425 Fax: 763-557-6956 Website: www.orchidweb.com Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) [email protected] http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
