Bollenteelt in beschouwing - Platform Landbouw, Innovatie en ...

OrganizationIntervieweePosition: Fauna & Flora International: dr. Abigail Entwistle: director EurasiaAffilation with bulb propagationDr Abigail Entwistle was one of the initiators of a project on diminishing bulb collectionfrom the wild and replacing it by local bulb propagation during the 90’s.Date interview : 8 juli 2004Reporter: Ronald SchillemansBackgroundThe trade in plants and animals that have been collected from the wild continuesto pose a threat to source populations and natural habitat. Conservation organizationshave looked for ways to restrict off take of such species, and where appropriateto ensure that continued trade can be sustainable. Because internationaltrade is generally driven by foreign demand, cooperative internationalmechanisms may be required to prevent over-exploitation. It is widely acknowledgedthat addressing the threat from trade solely at source may not always protecta species, and it may be necessary to investigate compliance at all levels ofthe trade and to sensitize markets. Furthermore, restriction of trade can alsohave implications for the welfare and rights of local people, who may rely on thecollection of wild products as a source of income, and on the values that areplaced on the local habitat.The Toros Mountains in Turkey are the centre for collection of wild bulbs. Wildharvesting is particularly damaging to bulbous plant populations because it involvesremoval of the entire plant, leaving no opportunity for further vegetativegrowth, and is typically conducted prior to seeding, when leaves are still easilyvisible.The demand for these bulbs particularly exists in the UK and Germany.Bulbs were collected by villagers, receiving less than 1% of the final market valueof the bulbs. Within Turkey the export of bulbs was organized by at most fivecompanies, under a series of government quotas. Most of this trade was thenchanneled through middlemen in the Netherlands. Bulbs were generally reexportedto the UK, Germany and the US, and many bulbs reached their finalmarkets bearing the misleading label ‘Grown in Holland’.By the late 1980s village collectors reported that wild bulb stocks were becomingdepleted [Abigail Enwistle, Sema Atay, Andy Byfield and Sara Oldfield Alternativesfor the bulb trade from Turkey: a case study of indigenous bulb propagation,OryxVol 36 No 4 October 2002].The Indigenous Propagation ProjectThe Indigenous Propagation Project was established in 1991 as a response tothe high level of exports of wild-collected flower bulbs from Turkey, and the perceivedrisk to native bulb populations.The first trial site was selected in 1993 for local propagation of bulbs. From thatmoment on the sites were expanded and eventually 250 villagers were involved543.735.1/Bollenteelt in beschouwingaugustus 2004