The Guardian newspaper reported that an international smuggling operation worth more than $1 million has led to an important court decision that can change how to protect rare plants around the world.
what happened?
In February 2020, Italian police discovered more than 1,000 rare cakes at the Andrea Piumbet’s house, a well-known plant collector who called himself the “Cail of the Club of Kactus. Along with Mattia Cresonin’s partner, Peyombett smuggled its plants from Chile to Greece and Romania before selling it to collectors across Europe, Asia and North America.
“These were unreliable plants, old plants, they are hundreds of years old,” Catuss, a catasher who helped identify the stolen samples, told the BBC. Some of the cakes were older than the smugglers themselves.
Why about smuggling cactus about it?
illegal vegetarian trade is a threat to living diversity in some of the most unique ecosystems on earth.
“The collection of some examples can really affect the types that can be extinct. But any living form in the desert is important because it is a very chosen environment that is very complex,” said Andrea Catabriga, an expert in cactus.
“Sometimes volunteers hide their favorite plants under rocks to hide from possible hunters. Because categories are inclined to be very regionally opposed to small populations, hunters can find all their varieties with hunters. All types with types full of species with their types are completely found with types with types with types that are found with types that types are found with species that are found with types. That types are found with their types.
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Studies show that 76% of copype types are at risk of extinction due to trade and global temperature rise.
“They are in a very rapid decline,” said Pablo Gerero, a researcher at the conservative University. “Some of them will be destroyed soon. It’s very dramatic.
When the inhabitants of the plants are destroyed, all the insects and animals lose their food and housing. Human societies also suffer with the disappearance of natural attractiveness and ecosystems are less stable.
What can be done about smuggling cactus?
This case has created two interesting progress to protect plants. About 840 stolen clusters were sent to Chile, one of the first well-known returns to their original country.
More importantly, the court’s decision was that the smugglers must pay 20,000 euros (about $2,594) to a security organization to repair the ecological losses they suffered.
“We give the plants a right, a right not to be destroyed because they are creatures,” Katabriga said.
The approach is now being studied in Uganda, the Philippines and Indonesia, which creates a possible wave of “green court” in which hunters pay for the full cost of their crimes.
You can help study the source of any extraordinary plants before buying, supporting protection organizations working to protect rare species, and reports of suspicious plant sales to local authorities.
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