Wonderful comments and insights! Thank you everyone for your thoughts.
Thank you King of Orchid Growing for your detailed biological information. I'll convey your info to the team, so we can be especially alert for the genera you mention.
RJSquirrel, I have been traveling to South America since 1992 (wrote two travel guides to the Amazon rainforest) and never had a problem, except with minor theft attempts (both in Ecuador). Our team has been visiting remote areas of Colombia since 2008, researching high biodiversity areas for conservation. We've never encountered anything except hospitality, goodwill and kindness. I don't deny the country has problems. Which country doesn't? But in my experience a big city in the US poses at least as much risk as traveling in Colombia. As Tindomul suggests, staying out of trouble is largely common sense. And again, that is true anywhere.
Tindomul, I appreciate your note to Orchidboard members to be wary when considering donating to any solicitation. I entirely agree, considering the spammers and other undesirables roaming these pages. That said, I can assure you that we are legitimate. I am on this forum because of my love of orchids and the places wild orchids grow. But anyone who'd like to support our efforts to conserve areas where wild orchids grow in Colombia is welcome to email us directly, and I will forward that email to Dr. Stuart Pimm of Duke University who will reply personally. (Please Google Stuart Pimm if you want to know who he is.) At present our payments are processed by the Environmental Media Association, a well-known Hollywood-based non-profit. Our own non-profit application is under review by the IRS, as we are looking for greater independence.
We are a small start-up conservation organization looking to find new ways to conserve biodiversity in the world's special areas. Unlike Conservation International, WWF and Nature Conservancy, we spend all donations on purchasing land on behalf of NGOs, and none on overhead such as Washington lobbyists and expensive offices. So we do need to ask for people's trust as we grow and remain faithful to our ideals of conservation that works to save species.
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