Illegal trade in South Africa’s ‘super-weird-looking’ plants is booming

A biodiversity hotspot in a remote part of South Africa has become a hub of illegal trade in protected plant species, with organized crime groups capitalizing on foreign demand.

“They haven’t just stolen our land or our plants, they’ve stolen our heritage,” one pastoralist angrily tells the BBC. She expresses dismay at the social and ecological crisis caused by poaching.

Most of the plants in question are a variety of succulent plants, named for their ability to hold water and survive in dry climates.

Many of the world’s succulent species are found only in the Succulent Karoo Desert, which extends across South Africa and Namibia.

Succulent species vary in size, shape and color – some look like small multi-coloured buttons and some look like cacti, which grow colorful flowers at certain times of the year.

Although these varieties can be cultivated in nurseries, global demand is also leading to poaching of these plants from the wild, which are then smuggled and sold online to buyers in the US, Europe and East Asia.

In Kamieskroon, a small town in the center of South Africa’s Namaqualand region, the rolling hills have become a hunter’s paradise.

Some species are highly localized, and so even small amounts of poaching could lead to their extinction.

“In South Africa, we already know of seven species that have been completely destroyed and there are certainly more species that will become extinct very soon,” says nursery curator Peter van Wyk. /AI/AS-Richtersveld Transfrontier Park,

It is difficult to obtain data on how many plants are being poached, but the NGO Traffic reports 1.6 million illegally harvested succulent plants seized by South African law enforcement agencies between 2019 and 2024. This represents only the banned substance that was detected, so the actual figure is likely to be much higher.

The South African government is well aware of the problem and has unveiled a strategy to tackle poaching by 2022. This involves running community programs about the need to protect the environment.

According to Mr Van Wyk and other conservationists, plant poaching has been increasing rapidly since the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020.

With international traders unable to travel to South Africa during that time, they turned to locals to collect the succulent plants for them and ship them out of the country.

Mr Van Wyk says this coincides with an increase in global demand.

“People had more time to try to find something to keep them busy, and plants were one of the only things in your home that could connect you to the outside world.”

It has been seized by organized crime syndicates who hire teams of plant hunters and then market the wild plants on social media and e-commerce platforms.

“The syndicate saw this as an opportunity to do something viral…to tell as much of the public as possible: ‘We have this super-weird-looking thing that comes from the African continent’,” says Mr Van Wyk.

He added, “Then the public gets brainwashed and they say: ‘I want to buy one’, and (syndicates) arrange poaching of the species.”

The increase in organized crime activities in the area is having a detrimental effect on local communities.

“This is a low-income area, people here are not rich and people will take advantage of the opportunities for income,” explains Malinda Gardiner of Conservation South Africa.

A cattle herder the BBC spoke to echoed similar views, saying that poaching always brings money into his community.

“When we see youths going into the hilly areas, we know they are poachers,” says the farmer, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals.

“They use screwdrivers to uproot succulents and they carry backpacks and sacks to contain the stolen plants.”

A few days later, excessive drinking and illegal activities increase.

“When they get the money, they get more drugs, more alcohol, the kids are neglected because mom is on drugs, dad is on drugs, there’s no food,” Ms Gardiner says.

They worry that the stress will have long-term effects.

“The small communities here really need each other… but it brings distrust. It also brings division into communities,” she says.

Mr Van Wyk’s assessment is clear: “People are being abused and enslaved by syndicates and buyers.”

An effort is being made to raise awareness among buyers about the importance of understanding where a plant may have come from.

China has become a major source of demand for wild succulents over the past few years, but an Internet campaign run there to educate people about the illegal succulent trade has yielded few results.

The Clean Internet Campaign for Conophytum was launched by the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation in March 2023.

According to Linda Wong, deputy secretary general of the foundation, they have seen an 80% drop in online advertisements for conophytum – a type of succulent – ​​from an unknown source, and buyers are starting to ask questions about where the plants sold online have come from .

She tells the BBC, “The main thing is awareness. Once people are aware, they want to take action. They want to take responsibility for their consumption of those plants and enjoy their beauty in a very responsible way. Are.”

Conservationists worldwide advise consumers to ask about a plant’s origin, and that under no circumstances should they purchase plants advertised as wild.

Traffic and the UK’s Kew Gardens recently announced they are teaming up with eBay Developing new ways to stop the sale of wild succulents on its platform.

In South Africa, Mr Van Wyk says more effort should be made to promote the cultivation of succulent plants, which can be grown and harvested legally, to reduce demand from poaching.

“As a country we need to say: ‘We have this resource, and there are other countries that are benefiting from it on a large scale, why don’t we?'” he tells the BBC.

Mr Van Wyk now runs a nursery in the /a/s-Richtersveld Transfrontier Park that cares for plants seized by law enforcement, and he says he has received more than 200,000 so far.

“It’s obviously stressful to see things disappearing. But if you study these plants, it brings a lot of happiness and joy and you forget all the nonsense going on in the world,” says Mr Van Wyk.