The Rise of Environmental Crime: A Growing Threat to Natural Resources, Peace, Development and Security

Illegally harvested rosewood fromWest Africa Rosewood is highly sought after worldwide for its pink or red-coloured wood, and therefore commands extremely high prices on the international market. Rosewood is a hard wood used to produce furniture, flooring and ornaments; some species also have an extraordinary acoustic quality and are often used in manufacturing musical instruments. Asia represents the main destination for illegally harvested rosewood driven by the high demand for rosewood furniture (known in China as the “Hongmu” industry). There are currently estimated to be 3,000 Hongmu factories across 25 areas in China. State owned banks have made loans worth USD 75 million to Hongmu industry. For example, in just one town, Pingxiang, there are 2000 Hongmu businesses alone. As a result, the extremely high levels of demand for this timber species have led to the unsustainable depletion of rosewood trees, and a thriving illicit market for the trade of their timber.

INTERPOL coordinated Operation Log, an operation to address the illicit trade of timber and forest products sourced in West Africa, including the West African Rosewood ( Ptero- carpus Erinaceus Spp). Nine countries participated in this oper- ation; Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Mali, Mauritania, Senegal and Togo. This operation resulted in the seizure of illegally harvested rosewood with a value of USD 216 million ( information regarding the quantity of rosewood seized has been updated since the INTERPOL press release in November 2015 ) 145 and the arrest of 44 individuals. Investigations are ongoing in the countries and information is being exchanged to dismantle the criminal networks involved in this trade. The results of the operation raised political awareness about the quantity of illegal trade of rosewood sourced from the region, resulting in Senegal requesting the inclusion of Pterocarpus Erinaceus spp in CITES Appendix II. 146 This proposal has been co-sponsored by seven countries namely Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Nigeria, Togo and Chad.

Evolution of the price in the Rosewood supply chain Based on a 10 tonnes container of Rosewood

Exporter to Chinese companies

Middle man to exporter

9 800

4 900

Logger to middleman

17

34

6 550

11 500

Selling price US Dollars

Figure 9: The economic impact of the criminal behaviour relating to illegal logging and the export of West African rosewood can be reflected by the huge differences between the price at the logging stage compared to the export price (as identified in the framework of INTERPOL Operation Log)

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