Cacti Extinction?

Cacti facing extinction due to over-harvesting and illegal trade in plants, a global study has found.

19:38 07 October 2015

The level of threat to cacti is much greater than previously thought, conservationists have claimed. According to the assessment by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, 31per cent of the world’s 1,480 cactus species were under pressure from human activities such as illegal trading and over-harvesting.

 

"The results of this assessment come as a shock to us," said lead author Barbara Goettsch, co-chairwoman of the IUCN's Cactus and Succulent Plant Specialist Group.

"We did not expect cacti to be so highly threatened and for illegal trade to be such an important driver of their decline."

 

"They tend to occur in very localised places, so the distribution range is generally quite small," she explained.

"They are also very slow-growing species so this makes them particularly vulnerable to disturbance."

 

"The whole family of cacti is included in Cites, which means that you can trade the species but you need to have permits. This is what needs to be enforced in some of the countries where the species occur," she said.

 

"The other thing that would really help these plants would be to raise awareness of the importance of harvesting sustainably, because in many cases the plants are not destined for international markets. They are just traded in local markets so many local communities need to be aware of how they should harvest them or if they should harvest them at all."