Flora smuggling in Succulent Karoo threatens world’s most biodiverse arid region

Illegal harvesting to supply the international horticultural market threatens some of South Africa’s endemic succulent species. The plants — sought for their beauty, rarity and often whimsical shapes — face near extinction in the wild.

South Africa is home to three of the world’s 36 biodiversity hotspots. One is the Succulent Karoo, covering 116,000 km2 in the Western and Northern Cape provinces and across the border into Namibia. The Succulent Karoo is the world’s most biodiverse arid region, with many of its species occurring nowhere else on Earth. It houses the planet’s largest concentration of succulents, all of which are uniquely adapted to thrive in aridity. 



Despite its astonishing resilience to the harsh, arid climate, the Succulent Karoo faces several human-related threats. These include climate change, habitat destruction through farming and mining, and the rise in illegal harvesting and trade of wild plants to supply international horticultural markets. While cultivated succulents may be legally traded, wild plants may not be harvested or sold without a permit. 

Although Red Listed in South Africa, several illegally harvested and traded species were recently added to the global International Union for the Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species. Many Succulent Karoo plant species are now classified as endangered and critically endangered — only one step away from extinction in the wild, like the last two remaining northern white rhinos. There are fears that Namibia’s succulents may face a similar fate.

Media outlets increasingly report on suspected illegal harvesters being arrested and thousands of plants seized. Incidents of unlawful harvesting began to increase in 2019. Until then, it was mostly foreign nationals, including from Asia and Europe, who illegally harvested plants during field excursions to South Africa. More recently, Saudi Arabians have also been convicted of related crimes.

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-11-26-blooming-ecological-crime-ravaging-sa-exposed-after-three-saudi-arabians-caught-stealing-1-6m-seeds-and-flora/

A CapeNature staff member told the Enact project that many of the arrested foreigners had travelled to South Africa before, and had probably plundered plants in other countries. One South Korean man was arrested in South Africa for being in possession of over 2,018 plants. After his conviction, he was extradited to the United States (US) and convicted of similar offences related to illegally harvested cacti species.

But, as a South African National Biodiversity Institute (Sanbi) official told Enact, “then Covid hit and it just sort of exploded.” Locals became the primary harvesters. This is possibly due to Covid-19 restrictions that limited foreign travel, but almost certainly due to poverty and limited employment opportunities in the Succulent Karoo region. This change also transferred the risk of arrest to the local harvesters.