Anna Ermakova, Martin Terry and Keeper Trout
It has been brought to our attention that Decriminalize Nature has presented words from our most recent article (Ermakova, Terry and Trout, 2022) in their social media in a way that implies we support their political agenda. Selectively taking a sentence out of the context of the rest of the article is misleading and counterproductive. We have said this before, but we would like to emphasize it again: We do not align ourselves with Decriminalize Nature or any other political organization. The Cactus Conservation institute promotes scientific research on conservation, and maintains a respectful relationship with the Native American Church and those who rely upon peyote as a sacrament. CCI has opted out of engaging on political issues around decriminalization.
We hope that in our article we are able to explain some of the complexity rationally, objectively and respectfully, taking conflicting evidence and points of view into account. We encourage anyone interested to read the whole paper and judge for themselves.
Ermakova, A. O., Terry, M. K., & Trout, K. (2022). Cultivation as a conservation tool for cacti: review of the botanical evidence and a case study of Lophophora williamsii. Bradleya, 2022(sp40), 71-82.
PDF of the paper is available here, and is reproduced with permission from the British Cactus and Succulent Society.
