With more than 20,000 species in the world, orchids represent an extraordinarily rich array of colors, scents, and shapes. Their diversity reaches its height in tropical regions, where a single tree can hold several dozen epiphyti orchid species. For a long time, the orchidsΓÇÖ biology rendered their cultivation very difficult, if not impossible, because they require specialized insects for the pollination of their flowers and specific fungi for the development of their tiny seeds. Beautiful and inaccessible, orchids have for centuries symbolized luxury and rarity, and enticed the passion of horticulturists and amateurs alike.
2 - International Trade: the Deathblow after Deforestation
Orchid trade is flourishing. Besides major local and national trade, some 5 million plants cross borders every year. Approximately 80% come from greenhouses, but 1 million orchids are still collected annually from the wild. The destruction of tropical forests is certainly the main cause for the rarefaction of orchids, but commercial collecting can be fatal to the last wild populations. Many species have already died out or are bordering on extinctio. This is why the CITE is regulating the international trade of orchids.
3 - Orchid Cultivation: A Business for the Rich?
The in vitr cultivation of orchids, now perfected for a majority of the species, has considerably diminished wild plant harvests. It has also contributed to the creation of spectacular hybrids, resulting from the artificial crossing of several species. So why does the trade of plants harvested in the wil still persist? Orchid cultivation requires large financial investments, for specialized labor, infrastructures and materials over a period of 5 to 10 years to produce a plant for commercialization. None of this is accessible to rural populations: in a single day, a poor villager can harvest several dozen plants from the forest near the village, giving him or her money immediately.
4 - Orchids, Cacti, Cyclamens and Carnivorous Plants Fighting the Same Battle
Numerous other species are the object of trade, both local and international, and involve specimens harvested from the wild. Thus, Mexican cacti and succulent plants from Madagascar or South Africa, cyclamens and narcissi from Turkey, carnivorous plants, cycads, palm trees, irises, tillandsia, rock plants and others supply European, American, and Japanese markets by the millions. Like in the case of orchids, collecting wild plants is not about to stop tomorrow. It takes a hundred or so years for a Saguaro cactus or a cycad to reach the decorative dimensions that will make it the choice ornament for the lobbies of large companies and prestigious hotels.
5 - Market Economy versus Sustainable Development
Plants are not only beautiful or fragrant. They are also used for food, medicine, furniture and household or industrial objects. Unfortunately, the utility of a plant is often the cause of its decline: sustainable development is a concept that does not work well with the market economy. Numerous resources are exploited to exhaustion, from rattan (5 Asian species are threatened with extinction) to hearts of palm (several species have been decimated in Madagascar, Mauritius, Vanuatu, and Brazil), or the Quebrachos of Gran Chaco (which will soon only remain in the form of railroad ties).
En hypertexte:
(1) Epiphyte
A plant that lives on another plant without being a parasite.
(2) Extinct...
The genus Paphiopedilum is one of collectors' main targets in south-east Asia, and numerous populations have been destroyed, including those in protected areas (national parks, nature reserves). The result: 25 of 60 species known in this genus are seriously threatened by extinction in the wild.
(3) CITES
The international trade of species listed in Appendix I of the CITES is prohibited (except in exceptional circumstances such as for medical research). All species in the genera Paphiopedilum and Phragmipedium, as well as 7 other orchid species, are included in this Appendix.
Appendix II of the CITES concerns vulnerable species whose international trade is strictly regulated to avoid over-exploitation. The import of these species requires a permit from the exporting country. With the exception of the few species included in Appendix I, all orchids are listed in Appendix II.
(4) In vitro cultivation
Cultivation carried out in an artificial environment (literally "in glass").
(5) In the wild
Orchids are sometimes harvested for reasons other than decorative purposes. In Turkey, for example, more than 16 million orchids of at least 38 different species are harvested annually to make salep, a starch used as flour. Vanilla is also harvested for the food industry, especially in Mexico.
(6) Sustainable development
Sustainable development was defined by the World Commission on Environment and Development in 1987 as a response "to meet the needs and aspirations of present and future generations."
