Well no surprize here. This plant rustling of Cycads has been going on in the Southwestern United States for the past couple of decades now. Many large mature Sego Palms fetch a few thousand dollars each for those willing to pay for an instant landscape at the expense of no questions asked installation. Many a rich folks in Palm Springs-CA, Scottsdale-AZ, and other affluent areas in the SW conveniently turn a blind eye as long as the job results gives them an instant micro paradise. This News item above isn't surprising either. People in many of these corrupt run third world toilette environments will do what ever it takes to support a family. A friend here in Sweden who is from Sierra Leon in West Africa said forests are fast disappearing there around his village by people clearing the bush and other scrub for the wood charcoal business which product ends up in Europe so that EU folks can enjoy their summertime Bar-B-Q. Like the early pioneers of the Americas who knew nothing of select cutting and reforestation, these folks know only of total clearing. The above OP about the Cycad issues is yet another problem for which there ultimately is no human fix-it-pill approach to solve the problem. It takes re-education of people's former cultural ethics to get people to do the moral right thing. No amount of eco green ideas/products can replace people respecting nature and each other. Given the chaos and insaneness for how those countries are run, no amount of outside influence will problem solve. At best it can only make small dents, but the pace of destruction far exceeds any gains of perhaps well meaning organizations.
Cycad theft in California is a severe problem for nurseries and garden owners. Florida is perhaps less bad. I wouldn't want anyone in warm climates to be deterred from growing them. There's lots of species from small Caribbean (and Florida) species of Zamia to some surprisingly cold-tolerant African species. Cycas, which suffers from a terrible Thai scale, can be kept happy in warm-temperate places, with lots of coffee grounds to help poison the pests. The Cycad Society is worth joining just for its excellent newsletter.
