Cycad

latest news & developments

Status symbol: A cycad at the Royal Botanical Gardens in London. Three of South Africa’s cycad species are extinct in the wild with more than half of the 38 species at risk of extinction. (Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images)

CIVIL SOCIETY OBSERVATORY OF ILLICIT ECONOMIES IN EASTERN AND SOUTHERN AFRICA

Cycads are being ‘loved to death’ in South Africa

The plants are seen as a status symbol by wealthy local and international collectors, which drives the lucrative and well-organised illicit trade

Sheree Bega

At risk: Cycads in Cape Town’s Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens. The ‘living fossils’ are high value in the illegal plant trade. Photo: Hoberman Collection/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

COMBATING WILDLIFE TRAFFICKING PARTNERSHIPS

Poachers steal cycads from people’s gardens for lucrative illicit trade

Residents must have permits to have the endangered plants but they are victim to criminal demand for the ‘living fossils’

Tunicia Phillips