Succulent plants in South Africa are under threat from poachers in the Karoo region

A biodiversity hotspot in a remote part of South Africa has become a hub for the illegal trade in protected plant species, with organized crime groups profiting from overseas demand.

“They didn't just steal our lands or plants, they also stole our heritage,” one livestock farmer angrily told the BBC, expressing her dissatisfaction with the social and environmental crisis caused by poaching.

Most of the plants in question are a variety known as succulents, named for their ability to retain water and survive in arid climates.

Many succulent species in the world are found only in the Succulent Karoo Desert, which stretches across South Africa and Namibia.

Succulent species vary in size, shape and color – some resemble small, multi-coloured buttons and some resemble cacti, sprouting colorful flowers at certain times of the year.

While these varieties can be grown in nurseries, global demand is also fueled by the poaching of these plants from the wild, which are then smuggled and sold online to buyers in the United States, Europe and East Asia.

In Kamiskroon, a small town in the middle of South Africa's Namaqualand region, rolling hills have become a haven for hunters.

Some species are highly concentrated and can therefore be wiped out by just a small amount of poaching.

“In South Africa, we already know of seven species that have been completely wiped out, and there are certainly more that will go extinct very soon,” says Peter van Wyk, a nursery curator in South Africa. /Amnesty International/Ise-Richtersfeld Transfrontier Park.

Figures on how many plants are poached are difficult to come by, but the NGO Traffic reported 1.6 million illegally harvested succulents were confiscated By law enforcement agencies in South Africa between 2019 and 2024. This only represents the contraband detected, so the real number is likely much higher.

The South African government is well aware of the problem, and unveiled a strategy in 2022 to combat poaching. It includes running community programs on the need to protect the environment.

According to Mr van Wyk and other conservationists, plant poaching has boomed since the coronavirus lockdown in 2020.

With international traders unable to travel to South Africa during that period, they turned to local residents to collect sap for them and send it out of the country.

Van Wyk says this has coincided with an increase in global demand.

“People had more time to try to find something to occupy themselves with, and plants were one of the only things in your home that could connect you to the outside world.”

Organized crime gangs have taken advantage of this, employing teams of poachers and then marketing wild plants on social media and e-commerce platforms.

“The unions saw this as an opportunity to create something viral… tell as wide an audience as possible: ‘We have this super weird thing coming from the African continent,’” says Van Wyk.

He adds: “Then the public loses their heads and says: I want to buy one, and (the unions) arrange to hunt these species.”

Increased organized crime activity in the region has indirect impacts on local communities.

“This is a low-income area, people here are not rich, and they will take advantage of income opportunities,” explains Malinda Gardiner of Conservation South Africa.

Expressing a similar view, a cattle rancher the BBC spoke to says there is always an influx of money in her community when poaching occurs.

The farmer, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation, adds: “When we see young people going up to the mountainous areas, we know that they are illegal hunters.”

“They use screwdrivers to uproot succulents and carry backpacks and bags to preserve the stolen plants.”

A few days later, there was an outbreak of heavy drinking and illegal activities.

“When they get money, there are more drugs, more alcohol, and the children are neglected because their mother is drunk, their father is drunk, and there is no food,” Ms Gardiner adds.

She is concerned that the tensions will have long-term effects.

“The small communities here really need each other,” she says. “But this leads to a lack of trust. It also divides the communities.”

Van Wyk's assessment is more pointed: “People are being abused and enslaved by the syndicates and the buyers.”

Attempts are being made to raise awareness among buyers about the importance of understanding where a plant may come from.

China has become a major source of demand for wild succulents in the past few years, but an online campaign there to educate people about the illegal trade in succulent plants has yielded some results.

The Clean Internet for Conovitum campaign was launched in March 2023 by the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation.

According to the foundation's deputy secretary-general, Linda Wong, they have seen an 80% drop in online advertisements for conophytum – a type of succulent – of unknown provenance, and buyers have begun asking questions about the provenance of plants being sold online. .

She told the BBC: “The key is awareness. Once people know, they want to take action. They want to take responsibility for consuming those plants and enjoying their beauty in a very responsible way.”

Conservationists advise customers around the world to ask about the origin of the plant, and under no circumstances should they purchase those that are advertised as wild.

Traffic and Kew Gardens in the UK recently announced a collaboration with eBay To develop new ways to prevent the sale of wild sap on its platform.

In South Africa, Van Wyk says more efforts should be made to encourage the cultivation of succulents that can be grown and harvested legally, to reduce the demand for poaching.

He told the BBC: “We as a country need to say: we have this resource, and there are other countries that benefit greatly from this, why don't we do this?”

Mr van Wyk now runs a nursery in the Ai/Ais-Richtersveld Transfrontier Park that looks after plants confiscated by law enforcement, and says they have received more than 200,000 so far.

“Obviously seeing things disappear is stressful,” says Van Wyk. “But if you study these plants, they bring so much joy and pleasure and you forget about all the nonsense that is going on in the world.”