China’s hunger for rosewood helps fund armed conflicts in South East Asia and Africa

20 September 2020
China’s hunger for rosewood helps fund armed conflicts in South East Asia and Africa
(File) A Hong Kong Customs official is seen next to endangered Honduras Rosewood logs, part of a 92 tonne shipment detected in four forty foot shipping containers originating in Mexico, declared as 'rubber waste' from Guatemala, and busted by Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department in Kwai Chung, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China, 17 December 2014. Photo: EPA

Chinese demand for treasured rosewood does more than lead to deforestation in Southeast Asia and Africa. Whether it is the cat-and-mouse game of timber smugglers in Myanmar or the Congo, the lure of substantial income from the trading of this special wood bolsters armed conflict, affects thousands of lives, and worsens deforestation.

When it comes to deforestation and illegal trade, both Myanmar and Thailand have found themselves on the frontline with forestry department rangers fighting a difficult battle to attempt to prevent illegal logging and the thirst for rosewood trees, prized in China for furniture.

The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) has been carrying out investigations into the illegal trade of rosewood in Asia and Africa, a trade that exacerbates existing conflicts and fuels support for the underworld in the countries concerned. Fighting this trade has led to loss of life on the part of forestry officials tasked with protecting the trees.

EIA carried out ta hree-year investigation into the Senegal-Gambia-China rosewood traffic that uncovered shocking evidence of funding to armed groups in the form of Chinese money. The smuggling of rosewood has created challenges for the rule of law in the poor countries, fuelled ethnic rivalries and armed conflict besides aggravating diplomatic tensions. In Senegal, the illicit trade of rosewood trafficking has been the primary source of finance for the MFDC separatist group, which controls the southern region of Casamance. The Chinese money is used for the rebel activities and armed uprising. The rosewood timber from Senegal is traded in neighbouring Gambia so the links of MFDC with the illicit trade have become an issue of diplomatic tension between the two countries.

Source - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

Rosewood that is used in traditional Chinese furniture is the most widely traded illegal wild product in the world, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). China’s unending demand for rosewood, which is also called as “ivory of forest”, is damaging forests in Asia and Africa. China imports rosewood from Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia in South East Asia and several African nations including Gabon, Republic of Congo, Madagascar, Zambia, Ghana, Senegal, and Gambia.

Graph: Chinese imports of rosewood 

Source - EIA

An ornately carved rosewood bed is sold for about US$1 million in plush Shanghai showrooms, which also means lucrative money for the rosewood smugglers. One cubic metre of rosewood goes for about US$5,000. Little wonder that illegal loggers in Myanmar, Thailand and Cambodia take risks to cut down the trees and smuggle the timber into China. Clashes between smugglers and forest rangers have turned these countries’ forest areas into virtual war zones. Over seven forest rangers in Thailand lost their lives fighting the rosewood traffickers in 2018.

According to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), China recorded a 700 percent increase in the import of African rosewood since 2010. Over 540,000 tons of rosewood or approximately six million trees were illegally harvested and imported into China from Ghana during 2012-19.The EIA asserted the logging was contributing to the desertification crisis in Africa continent, making it “the victim of China's insatiable and unchecked demand for rosewood”. Despite a slew of measures imposed to prevent tree trafficking, China still managed to import 329,351 tons of rosewood from the Gambia between February 2017 and April 2020.

Naomi Basik Treanor, expert at non-profit Forest Trends, said the Chinese demand for rosewood drives massive amounts of illegal deforestation, contributing to smuggling, fraud, corruption and ethnic and political strife. “There is strong evidence that this booming demand is being met by rosewood that has been illegally harvested, with dire consequences for complex ecosystems in some of the world’s most biodiverse forests,” Teanor said.

Traditionally, wealthy Chinese parents would buy rosewood furniture as an investment or a gift for their children. However, in recent years, rising middle and upper classes have adopted the practice, putting enormous demand for the vulnerable species, which has been vital for the survival of key flora and fauna in the African as well as South East Asian forests including those in Myanmar.

China based timber researcher Xiao Di said “We know that most of the logs are illegally felled, but when they enter China with the ‘right’ documents, they become legal. Chinese dealers bribe [customs] officials to buy CITES certification.”

There is visible fear in the world about China investing in underdeveloped countries as borrowers risk losing sovereignty in the form of strategic assets such as ports, islands, military installations under the “debt-trap” diplomacy. But the Chinese demand for rosewood has ravaged many healthy forests.

Although the Chinese authorities have claimed that they are tackling the illegal trade in wood and endangered species, including elephant, tiger and shark “products,” with a high-profile private campaign by Chinese basketball player Yao Ming taking wildlife smugglers to task, the big money involved in the trade of wood and wildlife makes it tough for campaigners to block the trade of these products.

What is clear is that the Chinese authorities need to do more to inform the public and lower demand, in addition to do more to tackle corruption in China. Without a ratcheting up of efforts, rosewood in Myanmar, Thailand and as far away as Africa will be in danger of being wiped out.

Lee Chen is a pseudonym for a writer who reports on Asia