From: Floral Artistry jjingram at pacbell.net> on 2001.05.18 at 16:16:39(6520)
Ron,
I think you have lost part of the equation here. Millions of plants are gone
because people have become indignant and will not allow material to be wild
collected. Millions of acres are slashed and burned every hour. You should
read into this "burned" as being completely unavailable to anyone but God.
There is no way we can bring this material back. The Brazilian government
has adapted a red line law that is emphatic about wild material. They can
not get it through their thick heads about the fact that it is their own
ignorance that is destroying these plants.
They need to adapt a collection and preserve mentality to at least remove
plants after the trees have been slashed and move the material to growing
facilities and grown on and when strong enough, sell to the world market.
I'm not talking "white gringo greed" here. I'm talking practical solutions
to save the very same plants you would like to have.
And, just for your info, if it were not for greedy collectors in the early
part of last century, Your garden would be a very boring thing. You would
have none of the foods you enjoy, none of the trees you enjoy and none of
the medications you so seem to think are the result of greed. Many of these
medications have saved millions of lives a year. I do not agree with the way
they are marketed and marked up unnecessarily but the fact remains that we
have them.
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"I am beginning to wonder if I should ask expert native
> BOTANISTS to collect and supply tiny samples for this Ark at FULL PRICE
and
when I visit their Countries to do so to observe, support THEM and help
WITHOUT collecting. "
There are very few expert native botanists. They just don't exist. I'm not
being condescending. I'm being realistic. And another realistic note, in the
countries we are speaking of (Brazil in particular) the masses of poor you
so wish to save are as ignorant about the value of the plants I wish to
acquire as they are about what fair market value is. Their economy is so out
of whack that fair value/legalities/decent living is very confusing.
And just FYI, it is very easy to get legal material out of Brazil. I do it
every month. And each plant shipment is government documented, inspected,
and approved. There is protocol and that must be followed. I have been lucky
to find several friends in Brazil who are as concerned about the native
plants to be sensible to cultivate and export. All the plants that I have
received are from cultivated material produced from years of growing from
either seeds, cuttings, or division. I am in the process of setting up a
growing area/production facility in Brazil to produce mass quantities of
native flora, everything from Aroids, bulbs, flowering trees, and palms to
gingers and heliconias. It is merely a matter of time to get the monies
together. The Brazilian permits are all lined up and ready to go. This would
not only sustain Brazilian natives (if only in the cultivated sense because
their "natives" will destroy the wild forms) but also educate the employees
as well as supply them will decent housing and income.
John Ingram
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