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Cops confiscate cycads
14/01/2004 15:38 - (SA)
Uitenhage - Uitenhage police and conservation officials confiscated illegally held cycads worth at least R100 000 from a number of homes in the Eastern Cape town on Tuesday, police said on Wednesday.
Following a tip-off, sixty-eight of the protected plants, thought to date back to the Jurassic period, were confiscated by warrant along with another 36 seedlings and 347 seeds, police spokesperson Michelle Kleinhans said.
Dr Piet Vorster, president of the SA Cycad Society, told Sapa that the plants were "on the brink of extinction" and were protected by international conventions.
They were very slow growing - taking up to 100 years to reach a substantial size - and because they were often ousted by flowering plants, tend to be found in areas with difficult soil where flowering plants cannot compete, he explained.
"They are very nice to have in the garden and there are hundreds more now because of all the backyard growers, so there is no need for people to remove them from the wild. However, they are popular with landscape designers who want 'instant gardens' and are impatient for the bigger ones," he said.
This creates a market for ancient cycads which are illegally removed from the wild.
Tuesday's raid follows a number of arrests in the Eastern Cape last year - one of which involved six men who allegedly removed ancient cycads from a nature reserve in the province.
According to an employee at a local nursery, small cycads start at about R150 and prices go up to about R4&nsbp;000 for the more mature plant.
Vorster said the propagation and possession of cycads required a transport, seller's, buyer's and possession permit from provincial departments of environment but these were mostly difficult to obtain.
Kleinhans said no arrests had been made yet in connection with Tuesday's confiscations.
The maximum fine for the illegal removal or possession of cycad is 10 years' imprisonment or a R100 000 fine or both.
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