Taiwan, Province of China plays an important part in the global trade in plants. According to international trade data for the period 1992 to 1997, Taiwan ranked fifth in overall imports of medicinal and aromatic plants after the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China, Japan, USA, and Germany. Taiwan is also an important exporter of plants such as artificially propagated orchids, with export volumes rivaling those of Thailand, the world’s leading orchid exporter.
In order to strengthen awareness of plant conservation and trade issues among the relevant government agencies, TRAFFIC East Asia-Taipei, a g[non-governmental organization], hosted a three-day CITES Enforcement Training Workshop on plants in September 2000. Taiwan’s Council of Agriculture (COA) sponsored the event. More than fifty delegates from various government authorities participated, including delegates from the board of Foreign Trade, Customs, the Quarantine Bureau, COA, and plant research institutes. Trainers included experts from Taiwan as well as their colleagues from UK Customs, the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, UK, and TRAFFIC International.
The workshop, which was the fifth in a series of international CITES workshops held in Taiwan since 1995, focused on licensing and trade controls for plants, plant specimen identification, trade trends and countering illegal trade. Providing useful tools to front-line enforcement staff was a principal objective of the workshop. In addition to lectures, the workshop also included practical exercises for participants to test their skills and to reinforce the knowledge provided in the lecture setting.