Back to BULBS
The Silent Seed (Sun, 11 Sep 2011 17:19:21 PDT)

I second that - Jim had just reminded us to talk about bulbs, so let's not disappoint him.
So, I'll start us off... I just picked up a cute 4 inch pot crammed full of Eucomis "Leia" - seems it's a new variety (At least to New England.) It appears to be a miniature - the leaves are no more than 8 inches long, and it's in full bloom - The flowers are a beautiful dark Lilac. Not having a sense of smell, I don't know how fragrant it is, or not.

Any other Eucomis growers here ?

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-----Original Message-----
From: Tom Mitchell <tom@evolution-plants.com>
To: pbs <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Sun, Sep 11, 2011 1:03 am
Subject: [pbs] How to kill a CBD

I'm sure that most readers of the PBS list want to get back to talking about
bulbs. The enthusiasm for growing plants - as many and as varied as possible -
that shines from every post on this forum is its defining characteristic. My
policy proposal would be to harness that enthusiasm to the ends of plant
conservation by doing exactly what we are doing...but more of it.

Several members of the forum have mentioned the UK's system of 'National
Collections'. In principle this is a great idea but the Charity that runs the
scheme, Plant Heritage is fatally damaged by its self-imposed slavish adherence
to treaties such as the CBD and CITES. One national collection holder recently
told me that he had collected seed of his favourite genus on a field trip in
South America and had raised and was selling plants from this source. He was
threatened with expulsion from the scheme because 'we cannot be seen to be
condoning _____ breaking the law.'

Why not establish an informal network of US-based 'International Collections'?
The huge advantage to basing such an organisation in the USA is that it is the
only large, wealthy country that has not signed the CBD. You can thumb your nose
at it without fear of prosecution. Don't limit the number of collections per
genus. The more, the better. Don't make the mistake of appointing a committee or
allowing one to appoint itself. The committee will immediately become part of
the establishment and want to insist on complying with the CBD and you'll be
back to square one.

As for the CBD, my advice is to ignore it. As I said, treat it with the contempt
it deserves. We cannot change it from within, so let's destroy it from without.

With any new law it is wise to ask the Roman Senator Cassius's question - 'cui
bono', who benefits? In the case of the CBD the answer is emphatically not
biodiversity, for all the reasons previously discussed. In the case of the CBD,
no-one benefits because it is toothless and routinely ignored. The would-be
beneficiaries, however, are the bureaucrats, who get to attend conferences in
fancy hotels to negotiate these things, their political masters, who can claim
to their bone-headed electorates to be 'doing something' and the business
interests that pull the puppets' strings. It is instructive to quote from an
email I received while I was writing this from a friend who has worked all his
life as a conservation biologist.

'You can imagine that, in 1992 [the 'Earth Summit', where the CBD was born],
every nation state arrived at the table with strict instructions from their
respective despots back at home to fight, tooth and nail, for their
self-interests. More, they are not to sign off on anything that will damage
their development process, as they see it. Translated, this means that they
don't want to sign off to anything that will cost money for any industry in
which the Big Men, back at home, have vested interests. They don't want to have
an aggressive, fang-bearing lion that'll come and bite them later in the arse.'

Another friend, a high-ranking conservationist, who works at the front line of
bird conservation, wrote even more revealingly in response to an earlier
diatribe of mine against the CBD:

' I especially love your treatise on the CBD - I share your views but can not
express them as I work for an NGO and we have to praise it.'

'We have to praise it.' These two guys are passionate conservationists and have
taken poorly paid, insecure jobs in an effort to promote biodiversity
conservation. Yet they cannot say what they think if they want to keep these
jobs. We are on our own, I'm afraid, but collectively we are up to the task.

Best wishes,

Tom