Hello all! On Tuesday, my friend and I arrived in Cameroon, and we are going to visit the Korup National Park in search of rare seeds. Perhaps someone has a certain interest in some, do not hesitate to contact! Best regards!
Kynep,
I am asking because I don't know the answer. Is it legal to collect fruit and seeds from the Korup National Park?
In the US, it is illegal to collect seeds / plants from National Parks for the general public. Or it is legal if you have a dispensation (e.g. you are a botanist collecting samples with the park's permission).
Please confirm that these seeds are legally obtained.
Yes, I am not saying anyone is doing it on purpose, but lets NOT steal from other countries national parks! It is one thing to take from your land or maybe even land that is about to be logged and/or burnt 6 ways from Sunday. It is quite another thing to steal from a country's national parks, especially if you are not even a citizen of the country in question. In all actuality you are stealing from the country's citizens and not the national park while you are lowering the suitability of the plants in question by taking their seeds. There is soo much that you can find outside of national parks (including many of the species you listed). You could purchase from local people or find on the land that is not inside national parks, which is the vast majority of the world.
We can never ever hope to recreate an ecosystem on our plots of land. Once these places are gone then all the mutualist fungi, bacteria, microorganisms, ect... and everything associated with them, from natural pollinators to seed dispersers will also be gone forever. Please everyone, lets not fool ourselves here.
Please do not take from other peoples preserves and wildlife sanctuaries pretending to do so for conservation (if that is the case), it makes us just as bad as the other countries or companies that go in and pay poor (or not so poor) native citizens for their yearly allotment of trees to deforest their lands. Cough...china...cough...cough, excuse me. Must be coming down with something.
There is nothing wrong with people from Africa or any other continent selling seeds legally! I see great benefit and opportunity for ethical / eco-friendly collecting making the forests or plants more important to the local community by allowing communities to profit from them and in turn wanting to keep them in good shape (ecosystems more or less intact hopefully) to harvest them year after year.
I don't want to cast judgement, but I do want people to stop and think about what they are doing. I hope I have not offended anyone. Just my thoughts on this that have been coming for a long time.
