By the way I think we had some kind of discussion about the topic here some time ago, please do a search as well.
So far for me I have concluded just my opinion the following:
1. Getting them from known protected areas such as sactuaries and nature preserves are automatically called Poaching!
2. Getting them from roadsides and stuff that are unprotected as long as for your own collection purpose is "collecting". I don't think this is a big sin, in fact if I had the opportunity I'd probably do it myself.
But the collection style also has to be discussed. if you uproot, then it's not great practice, if you take a few cuttings, I think it is an acceptable practice. Why? You pull off the plant, the plant is gone and it might die on collector's hands, if you make a cutting, chances are your cutting will live and the mother plant will live, even if your cutting does not live, you can still have a chance to go back and collect in the future because the plant is still there, hopefully.
*except in countries or areas where there are laws against collection without a special permit, etc. then if you collect without a permit, it's still poaching, except that we are not going to call you evil! It's a grey area I guess.
3. There was talk here about maybe rescuing Nepenthes which the road clearers hack off every year when they clear the roadsides of vegetation. This is basically "rescue" and not poaching or collection, but way difficult to control or arrange. In fact there are problems too because this can be abused and used by poachers as an excuse... "Oh they were from roadside clearings so we collected them" excuse, but really they were not.
4. Collecting Some, but not all seed capsules in my opinion maybe gives the least impact, but being that most nepenthes are males, that even this is not very good to do often or by many people, because you might end up killing that natural propagation method of the species. Imagine 10 hikers getting one seed capsule each, then one plant will end up with very little capsules left
5. I personally do not agree with the idea, that because I am collecting for personal collection that I am helping make sure that the species is protected in future, by helping propagation, etc. Nope... why?
a. Most Nurseries are only interested in seeds, so collect those and send to them, now that is helping in commercial propagation and protection.
b. You cut the plant, uproot it, etc. you are not helping you just collected for yourself, but you can't propagate it yourself and make it available in commercial quantity, so you are using it as an excuse to collect. call a spade a spade and just say I collected for my own collection.
6. Rescue collection, if an area is going to be developed or in danger of construction, etc. and you know there are plants there, then I agree that the best thing to do is to collect them, either re located them or put them in your collection. Better to ask for permit, but yeah often it is just red tape, and you need to act quickly. In this case, you are a hero!
7. Collection, no matter what and where and selling the collected plants is in my opinion poaching!
My two cents.
TTFN
Arvin