Forestry officials are also implanting rabbits in uncut trees and developing versions that can monitor sound within a one-kilometre radius, keeping a digital ear open for cars and saws. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Technology for protecting Siamese rosewood, and the other endangered trees of Thailand\u2019s national parks, continues to improve \u2013 motion sensors, camera traps, drones \u2013 but decades of illegal smuggling mean there are few full-grown Siamese rosewoods left in the wild.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTrees that were big enough to be sold and used were all cut down. Only smaller trees are left,\u201d Cheevatham says. A single mature tree can be 200 years old and fetch huge sums<\/a>, but after about 60 years of growth, loggers may consider a tree big enough to cut. \u201cOne of the problems of losing the big trees is that they are parents that will shed seeds… We now have to wait at least 10 years for the smaller trees to grow. When parent trees are cut down, the whole ecological system changes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n To prevent the illegal logging and trafficking, rangers in rapid response teams patrol from the Khao Yai National Park, just 120 kilometres from Bangkok, to Ta Phraya on the Cambodia border. They have become well-known for their intense training and jungle battles with smugglers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Between 2009 and 2013, 40<\/a> rangers were reported to have been killed in shootouts with people smuggling timber out of Thailand. In 2015, seven<\/a> more were reported killed. The Thai marines at the border and the navy on the Mekong also guard against the trafficking of timber, but demand from China keeps the trade alive and lucrative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Siamese rosewood grows sparsely in Thailand\u2019s east. It is the most valuable of the kingdom\u2019s poached trees, which also include Burmese rosewood and teak. From 2009 to 2015, Siamese rosewood\u2019s market price as a raw material grew from US$3,220 a tonne to more than US$23,000 a tonne.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Thailand had found little use for Siamese rosewood prior to the boom, but it is extremely sought after in China, where it is known as hongmu <\/em>(red wood).<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere are very sophisticated networks now that involve people from Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and pipelines that go through Vietnam and China,\u201d says Tim Redford of Freeland, a global, non-profit organisation concerned with wildlife trafficking and human slavery. \u201cThere\u2019s overland from northern Cambodia to Vietnam. There\u2019s through the Cardamom mountains to\u2026 Vietnam. There\u2019s over the Mekong, which is a favourite route \u2013 lots and lots of different trafficked items, pangolins, and tigers and that sort.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Branches](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/TaPraya_July2018-393_2560px.jpg\")
<\/div>Road to China<\/h2>\n\n\n\n