Source : Sun2Surf, Malaysia, 22 Jan '06
By : New Nation
  

And just why orchids are the world's most threatened plants has become dramatically clear with the jailing of a senior scientist at a British company who was an ardent orchid collector - and smuggler.

The attempt by Dr Sian Lim to bring more than 100 orchid specimens into Britain illegally from his native Malaysia involved some that are on the brink of extinction in the wild - specifically because of collectors.

Lim, from Putney, south London, head of research and development at Medpharm, a drugs company, was caught at Heathrow in June 2004.

He was jailed four months by the Isleworth Crown Court in west London on Jan 17 after admitting 13 charges of smuggling plants that are protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites).

Some specimens can change hands for thousands of pounds, reports The Independent.

Customs officials and plant conservationists who examined his haul discovered that 126 plants of the 130 they seized from his luggage were all Asian slipper orchids - one of the rarest of all the 750 orchid genera, or groups of species.

Meanwhile, Traffic - Wildlife Monitoring Network Country Coordinator for Malaysia Noorainie Awang Anak told EMILY TAN: "The Paphiopedilum rothschildianum is a totally protected species under the Sabah Government Enactment 1998 and is endemic to Mount Kinabalu. A person caught smuggling this orchid in Sabah may be fined up to RM50,000.

"It is highly prized by orchid traders and collectors. It is possible that the smuggling of orchids is an ongoing activity, it's so easy to smuggle and so hard to detect. Smuggling needs to be stopped as it may wipe out these rare species from the wild."