Rare plants hidden in toys

When South African officials at Cape Town International Airport discovered boxes labelled as toys being sent to China, they became suspicious.

China is known for exporting toys around the world, not importing them.

The boxes were opened for a spot check – and instead of finding the promised toddler kitchen set or board game inside, they discovered bundles of endangered succulents, all neatly wrapped in toilet paper.

A total of 23,000 plants known as conophytum were found in the shipment in April 2022, investigators from the South African Police Endangered Species Unit told the BBC.

Authorities had been on alert after a courier company was nearly duped by the same scheme a few months earlier.

About a year later, authorities at the same airport discovered boxes labeled as containing mushrooms. These were also intended for export to China.

When opened, they saw bags usually used for onions filled with succulents – about 12,000 pieces.

“It never stops,” one police investigator said. “You find out what their method is and they find another one.”

Since 2019, more than a million illegally harvested succulents representing 650 different species have been seized by authorities as the plants transited southern Africa to foreign markets, according to Traffic, an international organization that investigates wildlife crimes.

It has been reported that in South Africa, approximately 3,000 trafficked succulent plants are intercepted by law enforcement every week.

Driven by growing demand for these ornamental plants, new markets are emerging, particularly in East Asia, with many African countries now involved in supplying them, largely from the wild, according to the South African National Biodiversity Institute.

This threatens the biodiversity of regions such as the Succulent Karoo, an area so named by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) that covers vast arid areas of South Africa and Namibia. It is home to more than 6,000 species of succulent plants, 40% of which are found nowhere else, according to conservation organizations.

One of the most common succulent species smuggled is conophytum, several subspecies of which are subject to trade restrictions.

This is because, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, these species are either critically endangered or endangered.

Postal and courier services have become an easy way to smuggle small plants such as succulents, wildlife trade experts say.

A recent report by the World Customs Organization (WCO) found that the most common method of smuggling flora and fauna was packing them into small parcels to be sent by post, which accounted for 43% of all seizures in 2022, a 17% increase from the previous year.

“Criminals use many methods to hide illicit goods in the mail. One of the most common methods is using children’s toys,” said Dawn Wilkes, postal security program manager for the Universal Postal Union, a global association of postal services.

She told the BBC that these shipments usually came from Africa or Asia.

And customs officers know full well that traffickers are cunning beings.

Last March, authorities in the city of Hai Phong in northeastern Vietnam discovered an intriguing shipment from Nigeria.

The containers were filled with what looked like black horns. Upon closer inspection, they discovered that they were ivory tusks painted black.

Experts investigating the illegal wildlife trade say it is unusual for tusks to be disguised with paint – although Vietnamese authorities have in the past seized ivory concealed in shipments of cow horns.

The Hai Phong seizure included about 550 elephant tusks, weighing nearly 1,600 kg (252 lb).

This led to the arrest of two people in Nigeria in connection with the shipment, according to the Wildlife Justice Commission, which worked with the country's customs service on the case.

The illegal ivory trade mainly affects Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Zambia and Zimbabwe and is one of the main reasons for the decline of African elephants – the population has declined by around 90% over the last 30 years.

The African forest elephant is on the IUCN Red List of Critically Endangered Species.

Endangered sharks off the coast of Africa are also proving difficult to protect, especially since their fins are a key ingredient in shark fin soup, a popular delicacy in many parts of the world.

There are over 500 listed species of sharks, and trade in most of them is permitted. However, the sale and purchase of parts of about 60 species of sharks is restricted, as these species are endangered.

And that's a loophole that traffickers are exploiting, wildlife trade investigators say.

A few cases have been detected in South Africa in recent years, when customs authorities were confronted with shipments containing a mix of legal and illegal shark fins.

“Criminals pretend that endangered species are actually legally traded species,” Traffic expert Sarah Vincent told the BBC.

“It is therefore essential that law enforcement knows how to differentiate between the two.”

This was achieved in South Africa with the help of Traffic's 3D digital technology, she said.

As wildlife trafficking cases have become increasingly sophisticated and cover-up methods varied, it is important for law enforcement agencies to share information with their regional and international counterparts.

For Elizabeth John, Traffic's senior wildlife investigator in Southeast Asia, a united front against traffickers is the only way to confront them.

Over the years, increased information sharing has led to an increase in seizures.

According to a WCO report, confiscations in 2022 increased by 10% compared to 2020 figures and by 56% compared to 2021.

But the increase in crises also indicates an alarming trend.

“These statistics suggest that the illegal trade in wildlife and timber is still widespread and that traffickers are employing a variety of evolving techniques to evade existing laws that prohibit this illicit crime,” the WCO said.

Wildlife trade experts say the challenge is to ensure that customs and border control authorities are adequately resourced, equipped and trained to anticipate traffickers' ever-changing tactics.

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