South Africa's succulents under threat from poachers in Karoo region

A biodiversity hotspot in remote South Africa has become the center of the illegal trade in protected plant species, with organized crime gangs cashing in on overseas demand.

“They've not just stolen our land or our plants, they've stolen our heritage,” one livestock farmer angrily told the BBC, expressing dismay at the social and ecological crisis caused by poaching.

Most of the plants in question are succulents, named for their ability to retain water and survive in dry climates.

Many of the world's succulent plant species are found only in the succulent Karoo Desert, which stretches across South Africa and Namibia.

Succulents come in all sizes, shapes and colors, some look like small colorful buttons, others look like cacti and have colorful flowers at certain times of the year.

While these varieties can be grown in nurseries, global demand also fuels the poaching of these wild plants, which are then smuggled and sold online to buyers in the United States, Europe and East Asia.

In Kamiskron, a small town in the heart of South Africa's Namaqualand region, the rolling hills have become a haven for poachers.

Some species are highly localized and can be eliminated with only a small amount of poaching.

“In South Africa we already know of seven species that are completely extinct, and there are certainly many more that will become extinct soon,” said Pieter van Wyk, the center's nursery curator. /Ai /Ais-Richtersveld Cross-border Park.

Data on how many plants are poached is hard to come by, but NGO Traffic reports 1.6 million illegally harvested succulent plants seized Number of contraband discovered by South African law enforcement agencies between 2019 and 2024. This only represents contraband found, so the true number is likely much higher.

The South African government is well aware of this problem and in 2022 announced a strategy to combat poaching. It includes running community programs on the need to protect the environment.

Mr Van Wyk and other conservationists say plant poaching has been booming since the 2020 Covid-19 lockdown.

Since international traders were unable to travel to South Africa during that time, they turned to locals to collect the succulents for them and mail them out of the country.

Mr van Wyk said this coincided with increased global demand.

“People have more time to find things to keep themselves busy, and plants are one of the only things in your home that connect you to the outside world.”

Organized crime groups have taken advantage of this, hiring teams of plant poachers and then selling wild plants on social media and e-commerce platforms.

“These groups saw this as an opportunity to spread the virus… to tell as much of the public as possible: 'We have this super weird-looking thing coming from the African continent',” Mr Van Wyk said.

“Then the public loses their minds and they say: 'I want to buy one' and then (criminal syndicates) arrange for the species to be poached,” he added.

The rise in organized crime in the area is having a knock-on effect on local communities.

“This is a low-income area, people here are not wealthy and people take advantage of opportunities to earn income,” explains Malinda Gardiner of Conservation South Africa.

A similar sentiment was echoed by one livestock farmer interviewed by the BBC, who said there was always an influx of money into her community when poaching occurred.

“When we see young people coming up the mountains, we know they are poachers,” the farmer added. He spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

“They used screwdrivers to uproot the succulents and carried backpacks and sacks to preserve the stolen plants.”

A few days later, binge drinking and illegal activity broke out.

“When they get the money, there's more drugs, more alcohol, and the kids are neglected because the mom is drunk, the dad is drunk, and there's no food,” the farmer added.

Ms Gardner worries the tensions will have long-term consequences.

“The small communities here do need each other … but it creates distrust. It also creates divisions in the community,” she said.

Mr van Wyk's assessment was more grim: “People are being abused and enslaved by syndicates and buyers.”

Efforts are being made to raise buyer awareness of the importance of understanding a plant's possible origins.

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

The China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation launched the “Conophytum Clean Internet” campaign in March 2023.

Linda Wong, deputy secretary-general of the foundation, said they have seen an 80% drop in online advertising of succulents (a type of succulent plant) of unknown origin, and buyers are starting to ask where the plants sold online come from. .

“The key is awareness. Once people know about it, they want to take action. They want to take responsibility for consuming these plants and enjoying their beauty in a very responsible way,” she told the BBC.

Conservationists advise consumers around the world to ask about the origin of plants and under no circumstances buy plants that are advertised as wild.

Traffic and Kew Gardens recently announced a partnership with eBay Developing new ways to prevent the sale of wild succulents on its platform.

Mr van Wyk said more should be done to promote the cultivation of legally grown and harvested succulents in South Africa to reduce the need for poaching.

“As a country we need to say: 'We have this resource and there are other countries that benefit primarily from it, why don't we?'” he told the BBC.

Mr Van Wyk, who now runs a nursery in the /Ai /Ais-Richtersveld cross-border park, looks after plants confiscated by law enforcement and says they have received more than 200,000 plants so far.

“It's obviously stressful to see things disappear. But if you study these plants, it brings so much joy and pleasure that you forget about all the crap that's going on in the world,” Mr. Van Wyk said.