{"id":4835,"date":"2019-08-23T09:35:41","date_gmt":"2019-08-23T06:35:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africasustainabilitymatters.com\/?p=4835"},"modified":"2026-01-11T05:30:29","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T05:30:29","slug":"not-so-rosy-time-to-halt-trafficking-of-coveted-tropical-timber","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/2019\/08\/23\/not-so-rosy-time-to-halt-trafficking-of-coveted-tropical-timber\/","title":{"rendered":"Not So Rosy: Time To Halt Trafficking Of Coveted Tropical Timber"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>By UN Environment<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The multipurpose rosewood tree is famed for its beautiful smelling and sturdy ruby-colored wood used in the manufacture of furniture, walking canes, boats, musical instruments, agricultural tools, and religious artifacts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The tree species, whose name is a generic\none for several dark-red hardwood species found in tropical regions across the\nglobe, fetches very high prices because it\u2019s strong, heavy, has a beautiful red\nhue and takes well to polishing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ironically, these properties which endear it\nto so many appear to be its Achilles heel. The tree which grows between three\nto four feet annually, and to a maximum height of about 100 feet, is on the\nverge of extinction in some parts of the world. It is also the world\u2019s most\ntrafficked wildlife product with a trade value that\u2019s higher than elephant\nivory, rhino horn and tiger parts combined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cognizant of this threat to biodiversity in\n2013, delegates from 170 countries agreed to include over 40 rosewood species\nfrom various countries in the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cites.org\/eng\/app\/index.php\">Convention\non International Trade in Endangered Species Appendix II<\/a>, meaning that international trade in their timber would\nbe more strictly regulated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, although many countries had laws\nprotecting the biological genus known as Dalbergia, smuggling was causing so\nmuch deforestation that the Convention agreed, in December 2016, to protect\nevery species of the tree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">From Guatemala to Madagascar to Thailand to\nZambia, rosewoods have been targeted by timber traffickers who seek to profit especially\nfrom its growing demand in China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cChina imports large amounts of dark-red\ntropical hardwood species in the form of logs to make hongmu (literally, red\nwood) antique furniture. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unenvironment.org\/news-and-stories\/story\/not-so-rosy-time-halt-trafficking-coveted-tropical-timber\">Read\nmore&gt;&gt;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By UN Environment The multipurpose rosewood tree is famed for its beautiful smelling and sturdy ruby-colored wood used in the manufacture of furniture, walking canes, boats, musical instruments, agricultural tools,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4836,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}