A shipment of Rosewood has been intercepted as its owners tried to export it from The Gambia, West Africa, according to a statement made by the Gambian Environment Minister, Lamin Dibba, on Monday 8 February 2021. The shipment comprised 22 containers of wood bound for an undisclosed destination, which has been seized by customs officials. Rosewoods, Pterocarpus and Dalbergia spp., have been heavily over-exploited in many areas of Africa due to the high value of their timber, and their export is now banned from most countries. The Gambia has previously been a major exporter of Rosewood, and is now largely depleted of these trees, with neighbouring Senegal accusing the smaller country of being a conduit for the export of trees felled illegally there.
The term Rosewood, or 'Hongmu' (红木) refers to a group of 29 timber species with distinct features valued in China, including the rich hue, extreme durability and often a pleasant smell. Hongmu species are widely used in antique furniture reproduction in China and Vietnam. Nearly half of the world’s countries (95 in total) across five continents have been exporting Rosewood to China since 2000. At a plant genus level, where studies exist, 90 percent of Pterocarpus and Dalbergia populations show declining or unstable populations. Since 2015, Africa has become the world’s top Hongmu producing region, accounting for the majority of all Hongmu log imports to China by volume between January 2015 and June 2019. Demand for Hongmu has driven boom-and-bust cycles, marked by steep increases in harvest and export volumes from individual countries before a sudden collapse, or 'bust'. Once a species is exhausted in one country, or new control measures are put in place by governments, smuggling networks quickly identify new supplies and move to the next country or region. This phenomenon of 'boom and bust' in the Rosewood trade has been well documented and was confirmed by the CITES Secretariat in 2019.
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