A shift from plant poaching to mass seed harvesting has triggered alarm in the Western Cape, with more than one million seeds illegally stripped from the province in just five months.
Figures revealed in a recent parliamentary reply show that between October 2025 and February 2026, a total of 1 064 032 seeds and 8 642 indigenous plants were recorded as illegally harvested or poached, pointing to what officials describe as an evolving and increasingly sophisticated criminal trade.
The issue was set to come under scrutiny at a briefing to the Western Cape Standing Committee on Environmental Affairs and Development Planning on Tuesday, where multiple agencies were expected to outline their response to organised poaching syndicates.
Stakeholders scheduled to present included SANParks, SAPS, the Western Cape Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning, CapeNature, and the City of Cape Town.
According to Dave Bryant, DA Western Cape spokesperson on local government, environmental affairs and development planning, the scale of the seizures reflected a significant change in criminal tactics.
“Tuesday’s briefing will address the reality that our natural infrastructure is under a dual assault.
“The illegal succulent trade now mirrors the sophisticated pipelines used for abalone poaching, with our province being treated as a warehouse for international black markets,” Bryant said.
According to the SA National Biodiversity Institute, the impacts of the illegal succulent trade have been severe for several endemic species with many restricted range plants in the Northern and Western Cape provinces having been pushed closer to extinction.
Assessments conducted for one of the most in-demand plant groups, the genus Conophytum (common names: button plants (Eng.); knopies (Afr.), has resulted in 97% of the 210 species being listed to one of the three International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) threatened categories.
Collectors are interested in a variety of other such species and many other in-demand groups are faced with a similar deteriorating conservation trend.
Bryant warned that syndicates are increasingly shifting away from harvesting whole plants, which are bulky and easier to detect, to collecting seeds that can be concealed in courier parcels and air freight, allowing them to bypass traditional enforcement measures.
The Western Cape Government has rolled out countermeasures, including the expansion of a licence plate recognition camera network along the N7 and the deployment of 58 specialised officers tasked with protecting biodiversity hotspots.
Bryant said while enforcement capacity has improved, more needs to be done to stay ahead of organised crime.
“We have the hardware in place, but we must now refine our intelligence-led response,” he said.
The DA said the intergovernmental engagement would be a critical opportunity to identify gaps in enforcement and strengthen coordination across agencies tasked with combating environmental crime.
The party added that protecting the province’s biodiversity remains essential, warning that without stronger, adaptive responses, organised syndicates could continue to exploit vulnerable ecosystems for profit.
Staff Reporter
iol.co.za