Plant Poaching: Should every plantita and plantito worry?
Lockdowns after lockdowns. The Plantita and Plantito revolution brought forth a new age of plant enthusiasm. Social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram were flooded with collaborating groups, live sellers, and traders of our little green friends. As a result, the demand for houseplants exponentially increased and revived the sector of horticulture. However, your Tita's plants may not be directly sourced from plant sellers and importers; rather, it might be from our protected rainforests. This presents an imminent problem to local biodiversity conservation, as native Philippine flora are slowly stripped away in their natural habitats in the way of Plant Poaching.
The Price of Plant Poaching (2017). California Academy of Sciences
What is Plant Poaching?
Plant poaching is simply the illegal procurement of plants and other botanical species from their natural habitats, commonly rainforests, protected, and conserved areas.[1] Usually, poachers take plants that are either rare or high in demand in the market, and in turn, trade them to collectors that want their hands with the plant. Likewise, Republic Act 9147 (Wildlife Resources Conservation and Protection Act) gives these poachers criminal liability in the form of a 6 to 12-year imprisonment and a fine up to Php 1, 000, 000 when caught.
In protecting these precious botanicals, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)[2] released a list of 400 plants that are commonly exploited in this type of illegal activity. Most of these plants are in the family of cycads, aroids like alocasia, amorphophalum; orchids, ferns, and nepenthes (tropical pitcher plants).
Cycas zambalenensis is a critically-endangered plant found endemic in the province of Zambales; classified in the 2017 DENR protected plant list.
Photo from The World List of Cycads.[3]
Fun Fact!
Cycads are cone-bearing plants started to exist before the dinosaurs walked on Earth, about 280 million years ago during the Permian Period of the Paleozoic Era.
How does Plant Poaching affect the environment?
Whenever these plants are unrightfully removed from their native habitats, the existing biodiversity will be heavily affected since natural sources of food and shelter of organisms located in that local ecosystem are now absent within their reach. A 2020 study done by the University of Guam[4] reported that cycad species play a key role in creating a safe environment for other living organisms as it provides adequate supply of nitrogen and carbon, two important substances in most biological processes.
How Can I Fight Against Plant Poaching?
Dear Plantita/Plantito, you should not worry about the plants that you have bought from a trusted garden center or nursery as they are produced by either propagation or tissue culture. However, note that some sellers might have sourced their plants from our local rainforests. Also, remember the acronym RARE:
R - report to authorities such as the DENR to suspicious illegal activities that are conducted in our rainforests.
A - avoid transacting with traders that offer protected plants listed under the DENR memorandum.
R - receive plants that are locally grown by horticulturists, hobbyists, or enthusiasts that you trust and know.
E - educate other plant enthusiasts towards the issue of Plant Poaching, to what they should and should not do in saving plants from exploitation.
A true plant enthusiast nurtures every green friend that they have. Plants are also just like humans; when outside of their homes, are lifeless and perished.
Works Cited:
[1] Barnett, T. (n.d.). Illegal Plant Trade - How Does Poaching Affect Plants. Gardening Know How.
[2] Department of Environment and Natural Resources (2017). Updated National List of Threatened Philippine Plants and Their Categories. DENR Philippines.
[3] The World List of Cycads (2005). Cycas zambalensis. Blumea 50(3): 519-522. fig. 1.. 2005.
[4] Thomas E., Michael C. (2020). Two Cycad Species Affect the Carbon, Nitrogen, and Phosphorus Content of Soils. Horticulturae, 6 (2): 24
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