14 October 2024
How you can avoid buying trafficked plants
Our experts explain how to buy plants ethically and what Kew and partners are doing to stop the illegal plant trade.
Not many people know that a lot of popular plants are poached from the wild and illegal trafficking is putting precious wild plants in danger. If you love plants as much as we do here at Kew, you’ve probably felt the urge to bring home a new and special plant – a cute succulent from Instagram or a beautiful orchid that no one else has. So how do you make sure you’re buying plants that have been cultivated legally, ethically and sustainably?
Kew does a lot of work to help endangered plants in the wild, including monitoring plants at risk of poaching and collecting their seeds, and fighting for legal protection for rare habitats like Peruvian fog oases. We also work closely with the global wildlife trade NGO, TRAFFIC, who are working to reduce illegal trafficking of wild species.
Stopping the illegal plant trade
A few years ago we worked with Dr Stuart E. Middleton at the University of Southampton to create FloraGuard, an algorithm that detects online adverts for threatened plant species. In 2024, Kew and TRAFFIC have started working with eBay to help them strengthen their policies and stop illegal plant sales – and we hope eBay will be the first of many online shopping platforms to get on board.
“We really appreciate eBay’s support in…helping to protect wild populations, while also benefiting responsible buyers and vendors by allowing sustainable alternatives to thrive,” says David Whitehead, the project lead at Kew.
Since 2019, more than one million illegally harvested succulent plants have been seized by law enforcement authorities in South Africa. When people can’t buy the plant they want through certified nurseries, they often go to social media or e-commerce platforms – not realising that poachers are hiding in plain sight amongst legal traders.
As well as damaging ecosystems and devastating populations of rare plants, poaching supports organised crime and exploits local communities.
How to check you're buying plants legally
TRAFFIC suggests doing these five simple checks.
1. Wild or nursery-grown?
Many rare and threatened plants are successfully cultivated in plant nurseries, so how can you tell if your plant is sustainably grown in this way, or has been taken from the wild?
While nursery grown plants are clean, healthy and uniform in size, wild plants may be shaped irregularly, have marks or scars from growing in their natural environments, and they may be bigger or more mature than your average nursery-grown specimen. Their roots may have cuts or tears or you might notice the plant’s form has changed in the course of its growth – marking a transition from the wild to a pot.
2. Is it protected?
You can check this by searching the plant’s scientific name on the Species+ website. This will tell you whether it has a CITES listing (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) – the most endangered plants are listed in Appendix I, then Appendix II, and Appendix III for the least threatened species. A CITES listing means there are legal conditions around buying or selling the plant, which you’ll need to get familiar with before you go ahead.
Some plants are also protected by specific countries: check your country’s laws and the laws of your plant’s native country.
3. Is this plant at risk from poaching?
To check a plant’s conservation status, search for the plant’s scientific name on the IUCN Red List portal to find out how threatened the species is: for example, Endangered or Vulnerable. Under “Threats”, you can see whether wild populations of your chosen plant are at risk from illegal trafficking. You can also find out where the plant species grows in the wild, how many there are in the world and what’s being done to protect it.
4. Are there people at risk?
Sometimes, criminal syndicates hire and exploit local communities to illegally harvest wild plants. The best thing you can do to protect these communities is to buy plants from established nurseries which have the right permits and are happy to provide information on the plants they sell. If you’re buying plants, you can also look for certifications from trusted independent bodies such as FairWild, Fairtrade Flowers and Plants, and Wildlife Friendly Enterprise Network, etc.
5. Are you buying from overseas?
Anyone shipping live plants internationally needs to acquire a phytosanitary health certificate, as well as CITES permits if the species is CITES-listed. All of this takes time and money, and a responsible seller will be up-front about this. Know where your sellers are based and avoid anyone who promises fast international shipping without being clear about the permits and procedures involved.
Always ask questions before buying if you think someone may be trying to sell you an illegally harvested plant. If you think a plant has been harvested illegally, report the advert to the social media or shopping platform. Together, we can stamp out illegal plant trafficking and keep wild plants safe.
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