VET vannie Land

In Richtersveld’s unforgiving terrains, South Africa’s endemic succulents are being poached to the brink of extinction, placing a fragile ecosystem under severe threat. Driven by a global demand, these endangered plants are smuggled out of the country through organised syndicates, feeding an ornamental trade that turns biodiversity into profit. VET vannie Land follows botanist Pieter van Wyk, in his efforts to protect this threatened landscape, working alongside conservation authorities and law enforcement units deployed to intercept illegal harvesting. Moving between field patrols and botanical gardens, the film brings together conservation experts and Indigenous communities who live with deep reverence for the land. Together, they offer insight into the nuanced realities of trafficking networks, as well as the pressures of unemployment and poverty that intersect with plant poaching economies. Balancing enforcement with ecological care, VET vannie Land is an urgent portrait of extraction and resistance, where conservation, survival, and cultural memory collide in one of South Africa’s most distinctive environments.