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Results for cacti

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Author: Robbins, Christopher S., ed.

Title: Prickly Trade: Trade and Conservation of Chihuahuan Desert Cacti

Summary: World Wildlife Fund (WWF) considers the Chihuahuan Desert Ecoregion (CDE) of Mexico and the United States an important ecoregion for conservation because of its outstanding biological diversity, ecological fragility, and environmental concerns. The ecoregion, rich in natural resources, faces a range of visible threats stemming from human activities such as mining, fossil fuel exploration, livestock grazing, industrial agriculture, and development. A less publicized, but significant, threat in the U.S. portion of the ecoregion is the commercial extraction of wild native succulents, including cacti, for landscaping in private gardens hundreds of miles away. In the Mexican Chihuahuan Desert, some of the world’s rarest cacti are harvested and exported, often illegally, by opportunistic foreign collectors, or sold to unaware tourists by impoverished villagers supplementing paltry incomes. WWF approached TRAFFIC North America, the wildlife trade monitoring unit of WWF and the World Conservation Union (IUCN), to investigate the implications of harvest and trade on the conservation of affected cactus taxa and localities in the Chihuahuan Desert. TRAFFIC divided this study into two parts to reflect the political boundaries of the CDE in the United States (Part I) and Mexico (Part II). TRAFFIC recognizes, however, that the geographic delineation of the CDE is defined by ecological and biological characteristics shared by both countries, and so it should be treated as one biogeographic region. TRAFFIC’s decision to assess the trade and management of CDE cacti in Mexico separately from the trade and management of CDE cacti in the United States was determined by practicality and methodology. The disparate issues associated with cactus trade, taxonomy, and management in Mexico and in the United States required two different investigators with knowledge specific to each country. Each investigator contributed a report to this publication and, to the extent possible, the reports have been harmonized to minimize stylistic differences. Commercial trade drives the harvesting of CDE cactus species in Mexico and the United States, but the nature and scale of this trade differ in both countries. Mexico harbors the greatest diversity of endemic, endangered, and newly discovered cactus species. Those species are highly sought after by foreign collectors and continue to appear in the international marketplace in spite of Mexico’s laws prohibiting illegal collection. The number of specimens entering trade illegally is believed to be small but may be significant enough to destabilize wild populations of some species. This practice also undermines the competitive advantage of Mexican growers to propagate and sell endemic cacti in the marketplace. In the United States, the cactus trade involves fewer cactus species but considerably more plant material. The primary markets are southwestern U.S. cities with an arid climate where consumers are trying to conserve water by resorting to desert landscaping with plants like cacti instead of water-intensive gardens. Contrary to their best intentions, gardeners and homeowners are addressing one conservation issue at the expense of another.

Details: Washington, DC: TRAFFIC North America, World Wildlife Fund, 2003. 137p.

Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 6, 2013 at: http://www.traffic.org/plants

Year: 2003

Country: United States

URL: http://www.traffic.org/plants

Shelf Number: 114743

Keywords:
Cacti
Illegal Wildlife Trade
Natural Resource Conservation
Natural Resources
Wildlife Crimes (U.S., Mexico)