Conservationists are considering
using sniffer dogs in detecting wild orchids that are being harvested in
Tanzania at alarming rates and smuggled out of the country.
The Wildlife Conservation
Society is training detector dogs for ivory, lion bones and other
illegal wildlife products. Director Dr Tim Davenport thinks the system could
work for orchids, although funding would have to be sought, according the press report.
It seems that wild orchids are
used in the making of chikanda, a food that is cooked from the tuber, the size
of small potatoes. It is cooked with peanut powder and spices. In rural Zambia
it is eaten with a local staple 'ugali' and sold at markets eaten normally as a
dessert or snack.
Shockingly, each year up to 4
million chikanda tubers (or 60 metric tonnes) were harvested from the Southern
Highlands.
Based on the number of species
found in the Southern Highlands, it is estimated that as many as 85 species
might be at risk of over-harvesting.
"In the mountains around
Sumbawanga a lot of chikanda orchids are growing as well, but it seems that
orchid traders haven't really gotten there yet," he said, adding that this
may change taking into account that evidence shows Tanzanians have taken a
liking to the delicacy as well.
An alternative project involves
a collaboration with researchers from Norway and Sweden to identify and monitor
trade in Tanzanian wild-harvested medicinal plants by means of innovative
genomics- based DNA bar-coding.
Naremoru river in the rainforest near Mt. Kilimanjaro, photograph by Chris73 / Wikimedia Commons
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