The "Edible wild orchid trade: sustaining livelihoods and biodiversity in Zambia" project, led by Dr Ruth Bone and Mr. Nicholas Wightman, members of the OSG-Global Trade Programme, has released its latest newsletter (July, 2018) here. The project deals with a hugely under-studied form of orchid trade involving the harvest and use of starchy tubers of terrestrial orchids in several African countries to make chikanda cake. Find them on Facebook. Indiscriminate harvest is a threat to orchids in several genera, but is also important to the food security and livelihoods of poor rural women and girls in Zambia. This project is working to document orchid trade for chikanda, and to promote sustaina

Members of the OSG-Global Trade Programme are often called to support national agencies in their efforts to tackle illegal wildlife trade. Recently, the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA), the Ministry of the Environment's administrative arm, called on Luciano Zandoná for support with identifying plants involved in a seizure of wild plants. Three boxes of illegally-collected, wild ornamental plants were seized at Guarulhos International Airport, Sao Paulo, on 02 Aug., 2018. They had been sent sent via post to Thailand by, security footage later suggested, a Chinese national who left Brazil several days later. The plants have now been sent to th