{"id":66347,"date":"2020-07-23T15:47:51","date_gmt":"2020-07-23T15:47:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chinadialogue.net\/?p=66347"},"modified":"2021-02-15T10:14:39","modified_gmt":"2021-02-15T10:14:39","slug":"rosewood-trafficking-worsens-in-the-gambia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/forests\/rosewood-trafficking-worsens-in-the-gambia\/","title":{"rendered":"Rosewood trafficking worsens in the Gambia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In 2019, the Gambia \u2013 Africa\u2019s smallest country \u2013 was the third largest source of highly prized hongmu<\/em>, a group of rosewood species used in China to make antique-style furniture and art. Yet the endangered rosewood species Pterocarpus erinaceus<\/em>, native to West and Central Africa, has been nearly extinct in the Gambia since 2011.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was an open secret that most of this rosewood timber, known locally as keno<\/em>, is in fact illegally harvested and smuggled from neighbouring Senegal. An investigation by NGO the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) has shed new light on the scale and workings of the shadowy trade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its Cashing-in on Chaos<\/a> report, published in June, revealed that the Gambia exported approximately 1.6 million rosewood trees between June 2012 and April 2020. According to EIA\u2019s findings, most of these exports are in violation of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), under which P. erinaceus<\/em> has been listed since 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Pterocarpus<\/div>
Endangered rosewood species\u00a0Pterocarpus erinaceus<\/em> (Image: Ji<\/a>–<\/a>Elle<\/a>)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur three-year investigation brings unprecedented evidence to show how extensive the crisis is and the magnitude of the illegal trade between Senegal and the Gambia,\u201d says Kidan Araya, Africa Programme campaigner at EIA Global, based in Washington DC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trafficking has already contributed to political instability in the Casamance region of southern Senegal, where the illegal logging has been concentrated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EIA\u2019s undercover interviews with traffickers confirmed rumours that rebels from the armed separatist group, the Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance (MFDC), derive most of their income from the illegal trade. Tens of thousands of people have been internally displaced by the long-running conflict for independence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe \u2018Senegambia\u2019 rosewood trade is on a par with conflict diamonds,\u201d says Naomi Basik Treanor, a senior manager of NGO Forest Trends. \u201cThe nature of the conflict in Senegal and the very porous borders makes this trade very hard to contain,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Imports of rosewood have increased<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Addressing the rosewood crisis was a diplomatic priority for the Gambia\u2019s current president Adama Barrow when he came to power in January 2017. His predecessor, the notoriously corrupt and ruthless dictator Yahya Jammeh, had controlled the rosewood re-export trade through a parastatal company, Westwood Gambia Limited, through which tens of millions of dollars\u2019 worth of keno<\/em> was shipped to China, reports EIA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barrow imposed a re-export ban in February 2017 and agreed to a joint enforcement initiative to combat the trafficking with the president of Senegal, Macky Sall, in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, EIA\u2019s investigation shows that despite these measures, imports have increased. Between February 2017 and April 2020, China imported 329,351 tons of rosewood from the Gambia. \u201cThis is more than China imported in 2015 and 2016 (241,254), during the last two years of Jammeh\u2019s regime, when rosewood trafficking was a well-known matter of state,\u201d says the report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n