
Why would someone steal the world’s rarest water lily? - nsns
http://www.theguardian.com/news/2014/oct/28/-sp-plant-crime-of-the-century
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jcoder
> At the time, Kew possessed virtually the entire planet’s population of
> Nymphaea thermarum.

If preservation is the goal, maybe the plants ought to be spread around a bit.
Sounds like the theft could be a net gain for the species (shrug)

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sfk
Synopsis: The plant is endangered, but we like it that way, since we control
the IP.

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arjie
It seems it isn't that simple. It looks like wild plant conservation lacks
funds, and that the operation of saving a plant from extinction is hard. To
the thief it doesn't matter if he sells the last lily on the planet for $10k.
That's $10k he wouldn't otherwise have. And he has no particular interest in
selling to a conservationist. It doesn't matter to him if the plant dies.

However, in general, we care. We want to preserve these plants for their own
sake. But thieves don't. There is a strong feedback loop: the fewer of a plant
there is, the better the gain from stealing. That's bad for us, since we want
more plants, not fewer.

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PeterisP
The article mentions the actual reason for the theft multiple times, and still
seems to not notice it - they have had many collectors requesting to purchase
seeds, but they have refused to release any due to bureaucratic reasons.

Plants aren't artwork that's supposed to be unique, and most plants aren't
animals that are hard and slow to breed, and have a limited number of
offspring - if you have an endangered species, and there are seeds left
remaining after they've sent them to the relevant seed banks and interested
scientific institutions (as they had done), then you _should_ distribute them.
The current policies on endangered species, as described in the article, seem
to prohibit this. Such policies are simply evil and broken - either by design
or accident - and they should be changed, otherwise they simply facilitate
extinction of such species.

There is no reason why Kew gardens should be prohibited from selling the
seeds/saplings to any interested collector at a price appropriate to the
rarity and the limited supply. It would reduce incentives to employ thieves,
as any collector can simply obtain the species legally, and it would produce
revenue relevant to funding further maintenance of such species in Kew
gardens.

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DiabloD3
Because people are dicks. I know I'm going to get downvoted for stating this,
but its the truth. People are dicks, and dicks do diskish things. The only
thing you can do in life is to not be them.

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chc
Do you think you'll get downvoted because people disagreed with you, or
because simply insulting the perpetrator is pointless and doesn't reveal
anything about the motive? Because I think it's the second one.

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001sky
"doesn't reveal anything about the motive?"

Semms misplaced. TLDR: Human nature. Nothing new to report.

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chc
"Human nature" is neither an explanation nor a motive; it's a punt. I am also
human, but I did not do this. I have been a dick now and then, but I never
stole a rare water lily. These pseudo-pithy explanations are about as useful
as answering the question "What causes things to fall when you drop them?"
with "TLDR: It's natural that when you drop things, they fall. Nothing new to
report."

We all know that humans do lousy things, but there are usually specific
reasons beyond "human nature" why they do them.

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aaron695
This is pretty much a high art theft.

Sure, people taking advantage of openness of displays of high art aren't cool,
as perhaps some sort of oceans eleven, steal from a rich person who keeps it
locked up kinda Hollywood way.

But the only way to save species now, is stopping more habitat destruction.

I do like high art, it does look pretty and while it's not commercially
available the conservatory does hold a unique exhibit which makes life
interesting.

But don't confuse it with saving the world.

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vacri
The article isn't "question in title, answer in article", it's "set scene in
title, story in article". It's not a FAQ.

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tomohawk
It seems absurd that they actually think that by essentially prohibiting trade
that they're going to make these plants more abundant.

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_almosnow
Because it's the world's rarest water lily.

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IbJacked
That was the exact same thing I thought after reading the title.

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RexRollman
Because humans.

