Of utmost importance to us at Air Plant Design Studio is to make sure that all the plants that we sell and send out into the world, are grown with sustainable practices. While we grow a lot of our own plants, a good amount of our mother stock and retail plants come from Guatemala, were they grow naturally. We only import from Tillandsia farms that practice sustainable harvesting. This "sustainably harvested" classification means that these farms aren’t collecting from the wild where some Tillandsia species are endangered, but are in fact, nursery grown. To import specific species into the USA, these growers have to hold certain permits that indicate that they adhere to these sustainability rules. On our end, we also have a CITES import permit that certifies we are permitted to import protected plant species like the T. xerographica and T. harrisii, plants that are both illegal to harvest from the wild. You can rest assured that when you purchase from us, we are doing our best to make sure that all plants that we sell are sustainably grown, and are not having a harmful impact on Tillandsia populations in the wild.