I read an article about a problem with poachers grabbing these weird plants in africa. Can't find the article but it was about lithops poachers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithops#Conservation_status
But they were so cute, looking like weird butt-cheeks:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lithops_salicola.jpg
So I picked some up at a local flower shop when I saw them.
they seemed to be selling them legally.
I think we wouldn't do anything with exotic flora and fauna unless smuggling had happened at some time in the past, then it got grandfathered in.
on the other hand, dandilions, eucalyptus, mongooses (mongees?)
Also tomatoes and potatoes in Europe, guinea pigs outside South America, pigs in the Americas, etc.
We love moving plants and animals around if they're useful or pretty. Conservation efforts that try to stop this for certain species are a relatively recent thing
> they seemed to be selling them legally
I think realistically businesses in other parts of the world have no incentive to fully enforce ethical provenance across the entire supply chain for these kinds of products, and in most cases, fully lack the capability either. You'd have to run some kind of ATF-kinda thing in a third world country where official rule of law is already dicey or absent.