Opening the Rosewood Pandora’s Box
Consideration of Risks and Impacts Associated with Prematurely Lifting the Trade Ban for SC77
Consideration of Risks and Impacts Associated with Prematurely Lifting the Trade Ban for SC77
A briefing prepared for the 3rd Regional Dialogue on Preventing Illegal Logging and Trade in Siamese Rosewood. Despite some important reforms during 2016, significant risks of ongoing illegitimate trade in CITES-listed rosewood species persist - including for both Siamese rosewood and Burmese rosewood
The expanding trade in hongmu (rare and valuable “red wood” used primarily for antique-style furniture in China) has driven successive boom and bust cycles all over the world, marked by unsustainable harvest, multiple legal violations (theft, smuggling, corruption) and violence in source countries
Criminality and corruption have swept a flood of endangered rosewood exports from Laos and Cambodia which fundamentally violate trade protections imposed by the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES)
A briefing for the 66th meeting of the CITES Standing Committee, January 2016. Hongmu is the Chinese term for high-end reproduction furniture made from richly hued durable tropical hardwoods, a sector posting a significant threat to the timber species targeted.
A briefing for the 11th ASEAN Experts Group on CITES (CITES AEG) and 10th meeting of the ASEAN Wildlife Enforcement Network (ASEAN-WEN) in Brunei from 5-8 May 2015. Details how illegal logging and trade in rosewoods to supply Asia’s booming Hongmu furniture markets is driving a violent wave of crime across the Mekong