John M
Orchid Addict
By NYEric: "CITES is all nations, enforcement is a different matter. If I lived in Canada my collection would be ridiculous!"
CITES does not apply in all nations. For CITES rules to apply, a country must be a signatory nation. Not all countries are signatory nations; although, most are, including Canada.
However, the trouble you in the USA have with "enforcement" has nothing to do with CITES. The strict restrictions you face are your own domestic laws, not the rules of CITES. Your own laws actually work against the aim of CITES. CITES deliberately does not control, restrict, regulate, or even document any species crossing International borders, in sterile flasks, regardless of the origin of the seeds, or meristem tissue needed to produce those flasks. That's because these seedlings/clones, growing in sterile flasks, are undeniably artificially propagated and could not themselves have been taken directly from the wild. The lack of CITES regulation for seedling/plantlets in flask is a way to encourage the artificial propagation and dissemination of rare and desireable species, thus helping to take collecting pressure off wild populations. CITES recognises the value of flooding the world market with large numbers of cheap, artificially propagated plants as a way to make the collecting of wild plants a lot of hard work for little, if any, profit and therefore, not worth the trouble. No species is "illegal" in Canada because they ALL can freely enter Canada as flasked seedlings with no CITES documentation at all. CITES deliberately exempts seedlings in flask from control as a way to encourage artificial propagation and the easy, red tape free, international movement of those artificially propagated plants to market, thereby reducing, or eliminating the collection (poaching), of wild plants to satisfy the world-wide demand. It's not a matter of "enforcing" CITES rules; it's a matter of CITES deliberately not having ANY jurisdiction at all over seedlings in sterile flask, because they can only have been artificially propagated. Artificially propagating rare species is not something you want to discourage, if your goal is to save desireable species in the wild and help them to stay there. But, some countries, including the USA, enact extra domestic laws to further restrict access to some plants (using the CITES appendices as a guide, further confusing the issue of which laws are at fault) and this is done in contradiction to the aim and goals of CITES. CITES knows that PROHIBITION DOES NOT WORK. The US government still doesn't get that concept and that's a damn shame!....for you and for the plants. After all, if what you're importing is artificially propagated seedlings in sterile flasks, which is an action that helps reduce pressure on wild populations of rare plants, why should your government tell you which pretty flowers you are allowed to own and which ones you are not? How can THAT even be legal in the USA?
Ex-flask plants are a completely different story because once they leave the sterile environment of the flask, they could conceivably have been collected from the wild. So, in Canada, as in every other signatory nation, CITES does have jurisdiction. However, the Canadian government has not taken extra steps and created extra rules and laws to counter the leniency of the CITES rules (with regard to flasks), because that would be counter-productive to the goals of CITES..
So many people say that some species are "illegal" because of CITES rules. That's just NOT true. It's the domestic laws that make some species illegal to own, not the (International), CITES rules at all.
CITES does not apply in all nations. For CITES rules to apply, a country must be a signatory nation. Not all countries are signatory nations; although, most are, including Canada.
However, the trouble you in the USA have with "enforcement" has nothing to do with CITES. The strict restrictions you face are your own domestic laws, not the rules of CITES. Your own laws actually work against the aim of CITES. CITES deliberately does not control, restrict, regulate, or even document any species crossing International borders, in sterile flasks, regardless of the origin of the seeds, or meristem tissue needed to produce those flasks. That's because these seedlings/clones, growing in sterile flasks, are undeniably artificially propagated and could not themselves have been taken directly from the wild. The lack of CITES regulation for seedling/plantlets in flask is a way to encourage the artificial propagation and dissemination of rare and desireable species, thus helping to take collecting pressure off wild populations. CITES recognises the value of flooding the world market with large numbers of cheap, artificially propagated plants as a way to make the collecting of wild plants a lot of hard work for little, if any, profit and therefore, not worth the trouble. No species is "illegal" in Canada because they ALL can freely enter Canada as flasked seedlings with no CITES documentation at all. CITES deliberately exempts seedlings in flask from control as a way to encourage artificial propagation and the easy, red tape free, international movement of those artificially propagated plants to market, thereby reducing, or eliminating the collection (poaching), of wild plants to satisfy the world-wide demand. It's not a matter of "enforcing" CITES rules; it's a matter of CITES deliberately not having ANY jurisdiction at all over seedlings in sterile flask, because they can only have been artificially propagated. Artificially propagating rare species is not something you want to discourage, if your goal is to save desireable species in the wild and help them to stay there. But, some countries, including the USA, enact extra domestic laws to further restrict access to some plants (using the CITES appendices as a guide, further confusing the issue of which laws are at fault) and this is done in contradiction to the aim and goals of CITES. CITES knows that PROHIBITION DOES NOT WORK. The US government still doesn't get that concept and that's a damn shame!....for you and for the plants. After all, if what you're importing is artificially propagated seedlings in sterile flasks, which is an action that helps reduce pressure on wild populations of rare plants, why should your government tell you which pretty flowers you are allowed to own and which ones you are not? How can THAT even be legal in the USA?
Ex-flask plants are a completely different story because once they leave the sterile environment of the flask, they could conceivably have been collected from the wild. So, in Canada, as in every other signatory nation, CITES does have jurisdiction. However, the Canadian government has not taken extra steps and created extra rules and laws to counter the leniency of the CITES rules (with regard to flasks), because that would be counter-productive to the goals of CITES..
So many people say that some species are "illegal" because of CITES rules. That's just NOT true. It's the domestic laws that make some species illegal to own, not the (International), CITES rules at all.