When you think of the illegal trade in endangered species what do you envisage? Rhino horn? Elephant tusks? Coral maybe?
The world’s media feeds us images of tiger skins, turtle shells, mounds of ivory being burned and rhinos shot and bloodied with their horns removed - it’s no wonder you think of these things.
When I think of this awful trade, I also think of cycads ripped from the ground with their fronds hacked off, being shipped to their new homes in the gardens of the rich.
I see boxes and boxes of cacti confiscated by customs and destined to die through ill-treatment on the part of the person that dug them from their Mexican home.
I see orchids torn from the trees on which they grew and sold on internet auction sites under the guise of plants legally grown.
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