Rare Wood Exports to China Tripled Last Year

Rare Wood Exports to China Tripled Last Year

The Cambodia Daily | May 13, 2014

Cambodia’s exports of protected rosewood and other high-value timber to China more than tripled last year, according to U.N. figures cited in a new report that blames lax law enforcement across the Mekong region and skyrocketing demand in China for pushing some species to the brink of extinction.

The trade can be deadly. At least 33 Cambodians were shot dead by Thai security forces while searching for the lucrative lumber across the border last year alone, according to rights group Adhoc. The illicit cross-border trade cost 45 Cambodians their lives the year before. 

In a report released Monday, “Routes of Extinction: The corruption and violence destroying Siamese rosewood in the Mekong,” the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) blames the illicit trade mostly on China’s love for Hongmu, its word for a type of high-end furniture and the species of wood used to make it.

“While responsibility lies with countries in which the tree grows—Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia—it is the state-sponsored commodification and commercialization of China’s rich Hongmu cultural heritage that has provided all the money, and China is where all the timber has gone,” the report says.

EIA investigators say they found a Hongmu bed in Shanghai retailing for $1 million.

Read the full article in The Cambodia Daily...