Rare clivias targeted in southern Africa’s evolving illegal plant trade

6 Jan 2025

Stakeholders are exploring innovative ways to safeguard the region’s precious plants from the threat of extinction.

The unprecedented onslaught against South African succulents now includes beautiful and rare clivias, which are being illegally harvested to extinction to supply markets abroad.

In 2023, the ENACT organised crime project outlined the global illegal trade in southern Africa’s succulent flora, and suggested ways to strengthen implementation of South Africa’s National Response Strategy and Action Plan. In September 2024, guided by the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), stakeholders met to consider progress, using ENACT’s recommendations as a benchmark. The meeting also aligned efforts with evolving trends in the trade.

More than a million succulent plants have been intercepted since 2019, primarily in the Northern and Western Cape, with illegal trade driving at least 11 species to functional extinction in the wild. But in 2024, seizures declined significantly.

From January to September 2024, about 20,000 plants were seized, few of which were previously targeted succulents – presumably because the market has been saturated. Job opportunities presented by increased mining and wind farm developments could also have reduced the number of active harvesters.

There is, however, another more perplexing suggestion for the decline in seizures. In mid-2024, a Northern Cape police officer was charged with offences stemming from possible conflicts of interest related to the trade. He and his team were almost singlehandedly driving the police response against illegal harvesting in the Northern Cape. One theory is that harvesting has not stopped, but is going undetected since the policeman’s arrest and suspension.

The illegal trade in succulents has driven 11 species to functional extinction in the wild.

CapeNature says this is evidenced by ongoing seizures of plants being transported through the Western Cape. Scientists also describe arriving at sites to monitor plants, only to find the area harvested. The seizure of conophytums in November in Northern Cape, along with rhino horn, is encouraging and could provide valuable insight into the criminal networks dealing in wildlife commodities.

According to SANBI, the police officer’s suspension has left the Northern Cape without a coordinated law enforcement response. Locals also now have no focal point for reporting suspicious activity. Although more species require monitoring, landowners are increasingly suspicious of anyone seeking access to plants, and so prevent researchers from monitoring plant populations on their properties.

The prosecution of offenders apprehended by the suspended police officer has also reportedly been halted while he’s under investigation. That would be a setback since prosecutions in the Northern Cape have only recently resumed after the successful appeal of erroneous judgments resulting from incorrect interpretations of provincial conservation legislation.

These developments may explain the decline in succulent seizures, but not the increased targeting of geophytes, caudiciform plants, and especially Clivia mirabilis. Named the miracle clivia due to its unlikely natural habitat, the species occurs in only one locality in a protected area. It is on SANBI’s red list and is protected nationally and provincially. Like illegally harvested succulents, though, these clivias aren’t yet protected internationally.

The first clivias were seized alongside succulents in the Western Cape in October 2023. By August 2024, more than 4,600 clivias had been seized.

Like succulents, clivias are harvested for their ornamental appeal and fetch remarkable prices from collectors and breeders. Demand seems to be concentrated primarily in China, and the plants are supplied by local and foreign harvesters and intermediaries, often from neighbouring southern African countries and Asia. Intermediaries export the plants via various African countries, including Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia and Tanzania.

Like illegally harvested succulents, Clivia mirabilis are not yet protected internationally.

South Africa isn’t facing the illegal plant trade alone. In Namibia, plants are disappearing and popping up on the same online retail sites as illegally harvested plants from South Africa, Madagascar and other countries in the region. According to law enforcement, Namibian plants are exported illegally since Namibia is not currently issuing permits for succulents. The plants are then sold or laundered through Asia and sold in countries like the US.

Namibian plants also transit through neighbouring countries and are often exported abroad from Tanzania. Law enforcement officials indicated that Tanzanians play a significant role in the distribution and trade of Namibian species. They seem to specifically target wild plants from southern and eastern Africa, and even Somalia.

A Namibian delegation visited South Africa in August to facilitate law enforcement cooperation and learn from South Africa’s experience in implementing its response strategy.

Key efforts in South Africa have included building government capacity to identify, counter and prosecute the illegal trade. Sniffer dogs have been trained to find plant material, and network analysis is under way to pinpoint senior individuals involved in the illegal supply chain.

A priority has been interprovincial and cross-border law enforcement cooperation. A recent joint operation aimed to improve collaboration between national departments and the Western, Northern and Eastern Cape.

In addition to different entities monitoring the online trade, where many plants are sold, TRAFFIC and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew are working with eBay to prevent, identify and report illegal plant sales on its site. Similar work is planned with other online platforms, including in Asia. TRAFFIC also trains law enforcement to investigate online trade.

Evidence handling has been streamlined to allow plants to be cared for pending prosecutions, and, as with succulents, efforts are under way to care for seized clivias. Like succulents, these clivias can’t be returned to their natural habitat until there are successful restoration protocols. But unlike seized succulents, clivias are difficult to keep alive.

Nursery supplies and greenhouses to accommodate seized specimens have been sponsored by nongovernmental organisations. The Richtersveld Transfrontier Park has opened a succulent nursery and display garden as part of the newly established Richtersveld Desert Botanical Garden.

Draft legislation provides for emergency protection but legal processes aren’t keeping up with the illegal market.

In January 2024, ENACT and SANBI convened a stakeholder workshop to explore the possibilities of expanding and simplifying the legal plant trade to counter the illegal market. SANBI subsequently submitted a proposal to include ornamental succulent plants in South Africa’s National Biodiversity Economy Strategy.

Other options include selling seized plants to fund the response and working with nurseries to scale their international exports. Legal trade is also being considered as a way to counter the illicit clivia market.

Read more: How an algorithm is fighting the illegal sale of succulents blooming online

Read more: South Africa resorts to triage as casualties pile up in devastating rare succulent poaching spree

Read more: South Africa’s rare plants are being poached to extinction, and the ecological nightmare is only getting worse

Read more: B(l)ooming ecological crime ravaging SA exposed after three Saudi Arabians caught stealing 1.6m seeds and flora

But resources to implement the response remain extremely limited, with too few experts, staff and tools to prevent and address the problem. Hundreds of thousands of seized plants die due to a lack of infrastructure, and local people who have been upskilled to assist with the response can’t be retained due to funding shortages.

A new draft Biodiversity Bill provides for emergency measures to protect species. However, legal processes, such as protected area declarations and protected species listings in national and international legislation, are too slow to keep up with the illegal market.

The Northern Cape’s capacity to address the onslaught is still severely limited, causing the Western Cape to shoulder the burden of the response. More engagement is also needed with the countries where southern Africa’s plants are sold, even if the species aren’t yet internationally protected. DM

Dr Carina Bruwer, senior researcher, ENACT. ENACT is funded by the European Union and implemented by the Institute for Security Studies in partnership with Interpol and the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime.

First published by ISS Today.

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