Estimating the extent and structure of trade in horticultural orchids via social media

The wildlife trade is a lucrative industry involving thousands of animal and plant species. The

increasing use of the internet for both legal and illegal wildlife trade is well documented, but there is evidence

that trade may be emerging on new online technologies such as social media. Using the orchid trade as a

case study, we conducted the first systematic survey of wildlife trade on an international social-media website.

We focused on themed forums (groups), where people with similar interests can interact by uploading images

or text (posts) that are visible to other group members. We used social-network analysis to examine the ties

between 150 of these orchid-themed groups to determine the structure of the network. We found 4 communities

of closely linked groups based around shared language. Most trade occurred in a community that consisted of

English-speaking and Southeast Asian groups. In addition to the network analysis, we randomly sampled 30

groups from the whole network to assess the prevalence of trade in cultivated and wild plants. Of 55,805 posts

recorded over 12 weeks, 8.9% contained plants for sale, and 22–46% of these posts pertained to wild-collected

orchids. Although total numbers of posts about trade were relatively small, the large proportion of posts

advertising wild orchids for sale supports calls for better monitoring of social media for trade in wild-collected

plants.