Expert assessment of illegal collecting impacts on Venus flytraps and priorities for research on illegal trade.

Autor: Margulies JD; Department of Geography and the Environment, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA., Trost B; Department of Geography and the Environment, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA., Hamon L; Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA.; Department of Applied Ecology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA., Kerr NZ; Department of Biology, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA., Kunz M; North Carolina Botanical Garden, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA., Randall JL; North Carolina Botanical Garden, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA., Shew RD; Departments of Earth and Ocean Sciences and Environmental Sciences, UNC Wilmington, Wilmington, North Carolina, USA., Shew DM; Biological Consultant, Wilmington, North Carolina, USA., Starke L; Plant Conservation Program, North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA.; Division of Natural Heritage, Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, Richmond, Virginia, USA., Suiter D; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA., West Z; North Carolina Chapter, The Nature Conservancy, Wilmington, North Carolina, USA.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology [Conserv Biol] 2024 Oct; Vol. 38 (5), pp. e14320.
DOI: 10.1111/cobi.14320
Abstrakt: Illegal collecting of wild Venus flytraps (Dionaea muscipula) for the horticultural trade represents a persistent threat to populations of the species across their endemic range in the coastal plain of North and South Carolina (United States). Although wild collecting of Venus flytraps is not a novel threat, there has been very little research on the impacts of collecting on the species' conservation to date or why an illegal trade persists alongside a legal one. We drew on qualitative expert stakeholder elicitation to contextualize the threat of illegal collecting to the long-term conservation of Venus flytraps in relation to other anthropogenic threats. Expert elicitation included botanical and conservation researchers, cognizant state and federal agency staff, land managers, and conservation nonprofit actors. The workshop included mapping of supply chain structures and prioritization of social and environmental harms. Expert consensus determined illegal collecting is an ongoing problem for Venus flytrap conservation, but habitat destruction, degradation, and fire suppression are the most significant threats to flytrap conservation. Supply chain analysis showed that observable social and environmental harms of the trade are focused at the supply stage and that less is known about transit and demand stages. Key research gaps identified include a lack of understanding of plant laundering practices relevant to a range of desirable plant taxa; the role of commercial nurseries in illicit horticultural supply chains; motivations for engaging in Venus flytrap collecting; and the persistent demand for illegally harvested plants when cultivated, legally obtainable plants are readily available. Our findings and methodology are relevant to a range of ornamental plants affected by illegal trade for which robust social data on illegal collecting drivers are lacking.
(© 2024 The Author(s). Conservation Biology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society for Conservation Biology.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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