ILLEGAL PLANT TRADE
September 1st, 2002
BY KEITH NUTHALLTHE RICHES that can be made from the illegal ivory trade are well known, but what of illicit imports and exports of rare flowers. Shipping protected orchids to Europe, Japan and north America can make criminals a lot of money. Keith Nuthall reports.WILDLIFE trade monitor TRAFFIC says that the illegal trade in medicinal and attractive ornamental plants such as orchids, ferns, cacti and succulents, whose collection and sale from the wild is restricted or banned by international convention, reaps criminals "tens of hundreds of millions of dollars ...
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