(I will add info about the law later - don't have it on hand right now.)
The early spring plants, such as snowdrops, are not very rare in the regions where they grow, it's just that 1) they begin to bloom earlier in Southern regions (the Crimea, Caucasus) and there is an established line of distribution to many towns by railway and buses. It is, in essence, organized crime. Snowdrops aren't the only such product coming from the Crimea (Ruscus and Juniperus are, too, and probably other things we didn't work with), so I imagine the people who do thiscan obtain profit without farming. Another evidence of this is the occasional plant with bulb present - were they farmed, the bulb would have been left in soil. (Cyclamens are used in folk medicine, so they are often taken with bulbs; but the bulbs, unlike the flowers, are mostly sold locally, and we would not be aware of it if we didn't come there during the season. This is, however, unlikely for snowdrops, which are poisonous.) 2) when other populations (in 'continental' Ukraine) begin to bloom, there are several other species - Scilla sibirica and bifolia, tulips, narcisses, later lily-of-the-valley, irises etc., and so the gatherers can pick a lot without farming.
Also, apparently flowers 'from the wild' have additional charm.
Also, farming Red Data species is illegal (but bulk sellers still provide 'licenses' from their village councils now and again.)
Also, there are places in the Carpathians where if you fence off a part of the meadow it's considered yours, so you can gather what you want there.
Also, by the law we cannot do much beyond spread bad publicity without police. The police are in on it, since most of the trade goes on in public places like markets and near underground stations (in Kyiv and other larger cities), so they are lukewarm in general and tend to find excuses not to get involved. When we do file a lawsuit, the seller is still unlikely to be fined. The whole businesd is rather amusing cat-and-mouth if you don't get involved, with many mice and few cats, and the occasional wiping of face against the wall.
The early spring plants, such as snowdrops, are not very rare in the regions where they grow,
Then why are they an endangered plant?
1. The ordinary hour.
When I read about the lawyer working at the soup kitchen instead of spending another hour at his paying job, I keep thinking, 'how cute these choices are. There are so many lawyers already, and so many kitchens, the guy can hardly say he's on the front-line... he found a way to occupy an evening, less depressing than watching the news.' (If anybody can just pay others to fill in, why doesn't the kitchen already hire help? If it did, surely the lawyer would one day donate money. Charities don't work like clocks, the need for extra funds would arise eventually.)
If the lawyer doesn't come at all, and other people don't come, the kitchen won't work. Even if a handful keeps coming, they won't hold out for long. I have seen it happen. High turnover rates are ok if new volunteers keep stumbling in, but when you come out in full force of five or three, you get this feeling. Like you're the Last Fools on Mars.
And then you all quit.
And then you don't start again. And then you never learn the effect of not contributing anything, and will be discouraged from donating to any cause, because this will be your new default setting. So even if the lawyer allocates one evening for manual labour, he already benefits the cause by being there, which is more than just his personal warm fuzzies.
2. That one hour which you really shouldn't have missed.
Sometimes, asking people to donate money is difficult because you would lose too much by being seen as for-profit, and asking people to donate time is difficult because you have to be absolutely sure they will follow orders. And then the lawyer who comes out of his own volition is worth very much.
Our NGO's hazy mission was protection of wild nature. One of traditional ways to do it is by focussing on specific species, or groups of species. Operation 'Snowdrop' is an umbrella covering prohibition of trade in endangered plants; it starts around late January and closes around late June, but it peaks around February 14 and March 8, the black days of mass destruction.
Now, the problem with people buying endangered plants can be attacked from different angles.
One is educating them. Writing to militsia (police) was the most targeted correspondence, but the most it did was make them wary and derisive (unless they suddenly needed to show activity to their superiors.) We contacted schools, but children usually don't buy flowers; and it always took so much time. Mass-media occasionally took up interest, but for real coverage they wanted Action. Since this provided us with the largest audience, we tried our best to provide it.
We invited them to the train station, where the plants arrived in bulk (mostly snowdrops and cyclamens from the Crimea and crocuses from the Carpathians). There we enlisted police's help and confiscated the flowers, counted them, wrote protocols which would hopefully end up in court and directed the flowers to hospitals. A reporter and a law-enforcer would typically go there with one of us, to witness the distribution. Once, a man demanded before the cameras than we destroy them, so that he would know we didn't cheat him out of profit. The police supported him. That was a devastating hit. We would be reminded of that event for years to come. Explaining that this wasn't what we had planned, or that the flowers were already cut and dead, or that this was one party out of likely ten from that train alone fell on deaf ears - people saw us trampling 10 thousand snowdrops into pulp; we were guilty.
...maybe it is possible to raise funds for this kind of work, but we never figured out how. Office supplies we already had, through association with another NGO. 'For insurance'? (There was that time when it was the cops who trespassed upon a population of Pulsatilla nigricans we monitored.) But men and women, thinking on their feet, not quitting after the first large loss, we never had enough. Now imagine that the lawyer's interested in wild nature protection. What would he rationally do?
(What tags should I use?)