| I am quite surprised by the outcome of the poll already, 5 out of 6 saying maybe.
For me the issue here, like with many environmental problems, is the numbers involved.
A plant could be common as grass in certain areas, but if theres a demand for it and people could collect them, it would surely be wiped out within a year.
Lets not forget when orchids were first being discovered, people were just ripping them up because there was a demand for them.
Most orchids are surely in commercial reach anyway, having long been propagated from wild ones, I dont see why we should need to pick more.
And if some orchids are covering landscapes then i think its great and they should be photographed and enjoyed, but left in their habitat.
I know as myself a collector of orchids fall into this trap, but i feel humans can be very greedy with such natural beauty, want to have it for ourselves and spend alot of money trying to recreate the environments in our own homes. This on the whole is fine, but I still believe we should not take any risks to ruin the natural habitats where orchids really do look their best.
I just dont think you can trust everyone to just take a few for their personal collection, and that they will be sold off and previously common species will become endangered.
UK orchids are surely a sign of that, where it takes physical barriers to stop people collecting previously common orchids, which are now only found in numbers in a few places.  |