By Nqabiso Gantsho, Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Forestry, Fisheries and Environment
When most South Africans hear “wildlife crime”, they think of rhino horn or abalone. But in the last five years, another crime has exploded across the succulent Karoo, the mass poaching of our indigenous succulents. This is no longer a case of a few collectors picking plants. It is organised, transnational, and devastating. And if we do not act now, we will lose species forever.
The scale of the problem
Between October 2025 and February 2026 alone, authorities recorded 1,064,032 seeds and 8,642 plants illegally harvested in the Western Cape. Since 2018, over 2.5 million plants have been seized nationally. The targets are specific: Conophytum, Lithops, Tylecodon, Adromischus – tiny, slow-growing plants found nowhere else on earth. More than 40% of the world’s succulent species occur in South Africa, mostly in the Northern and Western Cape. The illegal trade has professionalised. Intelligence shows syndicates deploying groups of 75 to 150 poachers in a single night.
Plants are vacuumed from the veld, packed, and moved through private couriers to Cape Town and OR Tambo for export. In one recent case, a 126kg shipment was intercepted at OR Tambo. The profits are staggering. A Clivia mirabilis case saw plants valued between R6 million and R30 million on the black market. CapeNature officials now say certain rare succulents fetch prices that rival rhino horn.
Why it matters to our economy and people?
First, we are losing irreplaceable natural capital. The South African National Biodiversity Institute confirms 7 species and 2 subspecies have been poached to extinction in the wild since 2020. Nine Conophytum species are now extinct in the wild. Once gone, they cannot be recovered. That means lost research, lost bioprospecting opportunities and lost heritage.
Second, we are undermining rural economies. Towns like Nieuwoudtville, Vanrhynsdorp and Springbok rely on flower season and botanical tourism. When a hectare of veld is stripped, it takes 10 to 30 years to recover. Legal nurseries that propagate and export with CITES permits are undercut by criminals. Jobs in restoration, ecotourism and propagation disappear.
Third, this is a law and order issue. The same networks moving succulents are linked to abalone, rhino horn and drug trafficking.
What government is doing, and where we must go further?
The Portfolio Committee on Forestry, Fisheries and Environment welcomes the work of the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment, the South African Police Service, the Hawks, CapeNature and SANParks. Operations like “Green War”, airport interdictions and K9 units are making arrests. The Vredendal court has become a centre for flora crime prosecution. But enforcement alone will not win this.
Three gaps must be closed urgently:
1. Treat this illegal trade like the serious crime it is. Penalties must reflect the damage. 15-year sentences for the Clivia syndicate are a start. We need a national directive that flora crime is prioritised with the same resources as fauna crime.
2. Cut the demand and close the trade routes
Most poached plants end up in Asia, Europe and the US. The DFFE must work with CITES, Interpol and courier companies to track parcels and prosecute buyers. South Africa must lead a global campaign: “Succulent poaching is not petty theft; it is extinction for profit.”
3. Support communities and legal growers
People in the Namaqualand and Knersvlakte are poor and unemployed. We cannot expect them to be the frontline of defence without alternatives. We need to scale legal propagation, seed banking and payment for ecosystem services so that communities benefit more from keeping plants in the ground than from digging them up. We also have a storage crisis. Botanic gardens are drowning in seized plants with no budget for soil or pots. The majority of 1.16 million plants seized by May 2024 have since died. That cannot continue.
A call to action – the succulent Karoo is a global biodiversity hotspot. It is part of what makes South Africa unique.
To collectors abroad: do not create a market for stolen plants. Ask for proof of legal origin.
To South Africans: report suspicious digging. Protect the veld and our heritage.
To government: fund this fight properly. Give investigators, customs officials and conservation agencies the tools they need. The Portfolio Committee will be holding DFFE and its entities to account in the coming months. We will track prosecutions, seizures and rehabilitation. We did not inherit this land to strip it bare. Succulents cannot run or hide. It is up to us to protect them. The cost of inaction is extinction – ecological and economic.
Succulent poaching is not petty theft; it is extinction for profit. These plants cannot run or hide, but we can stand up for them. Conservation is not only about saving plants; it is about protecting our shared heritage, sustaining rural livelihoods and preserving the relationship between people and the land, especially the communities who live closest to biodiversity. If we do not protect the veld now, extinction will be the final harvest.
