Native orchid update
Your source for orchid news and information from around the world - and from our own collections! -- Brought to you by Jenn, Naomi & Sasha @ West Coast Orchid Enthusiasts
I visited the site and progress of a new orchid conservation project in the Philippines called 'The Orchid and Plant Species Conservation and Livelihood Program'. It is a project aimed at both conserving Philippine species and providing people living in orchid habitats with a source of income. Species will be sourced through donation or rescue programs and people in the community will be given the skills and opportunity to cultivate, propagate and eventually sell these species. In addition, propagated plant will also be considered for species re-introduction. Overall, the project hopes to conserve orchid and plant species through reducing the dependence on wild-collection for the ornamental trade, and the efforts of plant rescue, propgation, and re-introduction.
I just arrived back from 6 weeks of research with orchid conservation in the Philippines. To us orchid enthusiasts, and hopefully others, an important topic indeed. Orchids are popular ornamentals in the Philippines, and as of today most species are still collected from the forest. Consdering that the Philippines has some 1000 different species of orchids (!), this wouldn't be much of an issue, however rampant deforestation and destructive natural calamities exacerbate the decline in species populations. And to make matters more serious, it is estimated that 75-90% of the orchids of the Philippines are endemic, which means a loss of these species is a global loss in biodiversity. Want to know what I found out? Then stay in touch because this is a continuing saga!