ROSEWOOD ROBBERYThe Case for Thailand to List Rosewood on CITESEXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Illegal and unsustainable rosewood logging is the major threat toThailand’s limited remaining forests, particularly in the northeast regions.
Unprecedented demand for luxury ‘Hongmu’, or ‘redwood’ furniture in China is driving this logging.
While national controls on domestic rosewood harvesting and trade exist in Thailand and regionally, so far these havefailed to control rampant illegal international trade.
Thailand sought to protect rosewood through CITES in 2008, but opposition from range states Laos and Cambodia
prevented any listing on CITES Appendices.
China’s rosewood markets have since boomed, directly driving increases in illegal rosewood logging and smuggling in Thailand.
Thailand urgently needs to demonstrate its intent to further protect rosewood and CITES presents the best and mostimmediate mechanism to do so.

The Thai Government should:• unilaterally list domestic rosewood species on CITES Appendix III in 2012, with a zero quota;• work with rosewood range states to list key Asian rosewood species on CITES Appendix II at the 16th Conferenceof the Parties (COP) to CITES in Bangkok, in March 2013.

ILLEGAL ROSEWOOD LOGGING THREATENING THAILAND’S FORESTS
Despite a nationwide logging ban and protected area
networks, Thailand’s remaining forests, particularly
the country’s northern and eastern forests, areincreasingly threatened by pervasive illegal logging.
The major driver of this crime is the rosewood trade –a multi-billion dollar international market underwritten
by Chinese demand and aided by weak international
trade regulation and corruption.
Thailand’s rosewood loggers are incentivised byextremely lucrative prices offered by international
traders for the prized wood – up to US$6,000 per
cubic meter. Official corruption facilitates the tradeat every stage, from forests to the borders or ports.
In September 2011, 12 Thai police officers were
implicated in illegal operations in, and smuggling
from, Thailand’s rosewood forests.
Rosewood smuggling from Thailand is complex,
although common patterns exist. With Thailand’srosewood-rich forests clustered around the country’s
northern and eastern borders, rosewood is often smuggled
into neighboring countries such as Laos and Cambodia
and transported on to Vietnam, from where it can be
shipped to the key end-user markets, principally China.

Illegal Thailand rosewood is also shipped via Thaiports, notably Laem Chabang, in Chonburi province,or transported from the northern province of Chiang
Rai up the Mekong into China. Fraudulent paperwork
regularly ensures containers of illegal rosewood arewaved through ports.
Thailand’s rosewood trade is also widely characterisedby violence. Rangers must go armed when tacklingwell-financed and protected logging gangs, and during
2011 alone Thai authorities shot dead 14 Cambodian
loggers and injured dozens more.
EIA research indicates that illegal rosewood logging
and trade in Thailand have boomed since demand
surged in China in 2007 and in the aftermath ofThailand’s 2008 proposal to list rosewood on CITES
being rejected by Laos and Cambodia.
In 2009, Thailand’s Department of
National Parks reportedly seized
1,222 rosewood logs in 134
cases. In 2010, 2,739 logs
were seized in 223
separate cases, while
2011 saw 4,850
rosewood logs worth
more than US$3 million
seized in 560 cases.

“Illegal rosewoodlogging and tradein Thailand haveboomed on surging
demand in China”
Shanghai

China

Guangzhou

Vietnam
Laos
ThailandCambodia

ABOVE:
Rosewood smuggling routes
from Thailand.

CHINESE DEMANDDRIVING THAILAND’SILLEGAL ROSEWOOD TRADE

Thailand’s 1989 National Logging
Ban, and prohibitions on logging inrosewood-rich conservation andprotection forests, applies to allrosewood and precious wood species.

In 2010, the number of companies
trading traditional ‘redwood’ or‘Hongmu’ furniture in China rose by30-40 per cent, and Chinese timbertraders spent more than US$3 billion
on rosewood in Vietnam alone. Annual
rosewood furniture price increases of
15-40 per cent are considered normal
in China’s luxury markets – a trend
exacerbated by speculative investmentsin ‘rare wood’ products by China’ssuper-wealthy elite.

Laos’ 2008 Prime Ministerial OrderNo-17/PM explicitly prohibits harvesting
all domestic Dalbergia species and wasreinforced by Prime Minister’s Order
No 010/PM of 2011, which “bans theexploitation, trading and export ofendangered wood including kayoungwood Dalbergia cochinchinensis”.

The finest rosewood furniture sets
now fetch hundreds of thousands ofUS dollars. Consequently, unprocessed
Thailand rosewood can fetch up to$50,000 per cubic meter in China.

RANGE STATEROSEWOOD CONTROLSThailand and Burmese rosewood, andother species, are widely protected in
key range states, including Thailand,Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.

In Cambodia, priorities 1 and 4 in the listof “endangered or rare species” of trees
are Burmese and Thailand rosewoods.
Harvesting “rare tree species” is explicitly
prohibited under Cambodia's 2002
Forestry Law, and Thailand rosewood isprotected under Forestry Law No 35.
In Vietnam, commercial Thailand rosewood
harvesting is prohibited, and in 2007 theMinistry of Agriculture further prohibited
individuals’ collection of the species.
Despite these domestic controls, Laos,
Cambodia and Vietnam continue to playa major role as both source and transit
countries in the international illegalrosewood trade.

ROSEWOOD IN THAILAND
The term ‘Rosewood’ refers to a wide variety of richly hued, extremely durable
and increasingly rare timbers harvested from an array of tree species worldwide,
largely from the Dalbergia genus.
Displaying a range of brown to reddish-black colourings, rosewood timber is highly prized for decorative purposesand commonly used in luxury wood products such as furniture, musical instruments, ornaments and veneer.

© http://www.natureloveyou.sg

In Thailand and the Mekong region, important rosewood-producing tree species include Thailand rosewood (Dalbergiacochinchinensis Pierre) and Burmese rosewood (Dalbergia bariensis Pierre). Classified as ‘endangered’ and ‘vulnerable’
to extinction, these rosewood species are the most valuable wood in regional trade and the major target of illegal loggers.

2Common & Scientific Names

Distribution

Local /Trade names

Conservation Status

Thailand Rosewood(or Siam Rosewood)Thailand: National, except southernand north-western regions.

Thailand: Mai Payoong

IUCN Red-List: Vulnerable.

Cambodia: Kra Nhoung

Dalbergia cochinchinensis Pierre

Cambodia: Nationally.

Laos: Mai Khanhoung

Laos: Central/southern Provinces.

Vietnam: Trac (tracwood)

Vietnam: Central/southern Provinces.

China: Hongsuanzhi 紅酸枝“Critically endangered in
Cambodia, vulnerable inVietnam, a high priority
species for conservationin Thailand and Lao.”(APFORGEM )Burmese Rosewood

Thailand: Nationally.

Thailand: mai ching chan

IUCN Red-List: Vulnerable.

Dalbergia bariensis Pierre

Cambodia: Nationally.

Cambodia: Neang Nuon

Laos: Nationally.

Laos: Mai Kor phee

Vietnam: Nationally.

Vietnam: Cam lai
China: Bali Huangtan 巴厘黄檀The Convention on International Tradein Endangered Species (CITES) is a
Multilateral Environmental Agreement
under the United Nations, with over
170 national signatories.

CITES Appendices
CITES operates through the listing ofendangered species on one of its threeappendices, which offer differing levelsof protection:Appendix I: institutes a total international
trade ban for critically endangered species;
Appendix II: regulates trade in threatenedspecies. Controlled trade is allowed,
subject to issuance of CITES permits
against agreed quotas. Species listingsmust be agreed by all range states;

One example of successfully listing
timber on CITES is ramin (Gonystylusspp.), which is on Appendix II, having
previously been on Appendix III.
Other rosewood species have protection
under CITES, including Dalbergia nigra(Appendix I) and Madagascar’s
rosewood species (Appendix III).

BOTTOM:
Illegal squared rosewoodlogs destined for China.

MAJOR ILLEGAL ROSEWOOD CASES
IN THAILAND (2007-2012)
January 2012: Department of Special Investigation seizes 193 rosewood
logs in worth US$ 630,000.
September–November 2011: 14 Cambodian loggers shot dead during
Thai enforcement operations in the year to November. Twelve Thai police
implicated in rosewood logging in just one province, in September.

July 2011: Laem Chabang customs seizes 1,800 rosewood logs destined forHong Kong, worth US$409,000.

April 2011: More than 1,100 pieces of rosewood seized in Chiang Rai province.

Appendix III: regulates trade in
threatened species. Individual range
states can unilaterally list domestic
species stocks on Appendix III as an
emergency measure, and do not require
the agreement of other parties.

August 2010: Customs seizes 500 rosewood logs in Trang province, worth
US$1.5 million in China.

It is incumbent upon all parties toCITES to prohibit and seize imports ofspecies listed on Appendix I, or thoseon Appendices II or III which are notaccompanied by official CITES permits
issued by the country of origin. In thisway, CITES provides trade regulation,
monitoring and enforcement mechanisms
not otherwise available to national
governments alone.

December 2008: US$110,000 of rosewood destined for Hong Kong seizedin Laem Chabang port.

September 2009: 400 logs from Laem Chabang port seized in Surinprovince, en-route to Hong Kong.

August 2008: Customs and the Forest Department seizes 113,600 units ofrosewood at ports nationwide.
January 2007: 50,000 rosewood logs seized and 527 people arrested innationwide police operations.

© EIA

CITES: THE NEEDFOR INTERNATIONAL
TRADE CONTROLS FORASIAN ROSEWOODS

3© EIA“Pursuing CITES
protection for keyrosewood species
is the strongest
immediate action
Thailand can taketo protect its
remaining forests.”

ABOVE:
Exorbitant rosewood prices
make even small volumes highly
profitable for smugglers.

THAILAND’S ROSEWOOD & CITES
During the 6th ASEAN Experts on
CITES Meeting, in May 2008, Thailand
formally proposed that rosewood beprotected under CITES. However, Laosand Cambodia explicitly rejected theproposal, claiming Thailand had not
successfully argued the case for a listing
and the listing would negatively affectregional timber trade. Yet the case forrosewood listings on both Appendix IIand III has long been clear.

Although Laos and Cambodia blocked
Thailand’s 2008 proposal to protect
rosewood through CITES, Thailand
should re-engage these countries andVietnam in an urgent high-level
initiative to harmonise, clarify andstrengthen regional rosewood tradecontrols through CITES. This initiative
should result in all Mekong range
states’ rosewood species being listed
on CITES Appendix II at the 16th
Conference of the Parties (COP), which
Thailand will host in March 2013.

Appendix III listings are justified if
the species is native to the applicantcountry; if national controls adequately
restrict exploitation and trade; andif assistance is required from othercountries to better control illegal trade.

To demonstrate to range states its clear
proactive intent to protect its rosewood
forests, during 2012 Thailand should
unilaterally list domestic rosewood
species on CITES Appendix III, witha zero quota for export. This is bothThailand’s right and responsibility.

As far back as 1998, a Netherlands-led
evaluation of tree species using thenew CITES listing criteria found that
Appendix II listings for both Thailand
and Burmese rosewood were justified
because exploitation for international
trade was “greater than that deemed
to be sustainable”.

Species listed on Appendix III
should include Dalbergia cochinchinensis(Thailand rosewood), and Dalbergia
bariensis (Burmese rosewood), bothof which clearly meet listing criteria
for both Appendices III and II.

Twelve years on, “sustainable” rosewood
trade in the Mekong region seems along-distant myth. In April 2011, EIA
investigators met a major Chineserosewood trader who complained that“the species is finished ... there are only
about five years left in the trade”.

International cooperation is now
required to tackle the criminal, violent
and corruption-riddled rosewood tradedecimating the forests of Thailand andthe wider Mekong region.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

CONCLUSIONS & NEXTSTEPS FOR THAILAND
In the face of burgeoning illegalrosewood logging and smuggling to
supply global demand, Thailand
urgently needs to garner international
support to protect its remaining forests.
Pursuing CITES protection for key
rosewood species is the strongest
immediate action Thailand can taketo supplement domestic controls,
while cooperatively building on similar
controls in neighbouring range states.

ENVIRONMENTAL INVESTIGATION AGENCY (EIA)
62/63 Upper Street
London N1 0NY, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7354 7960
Fax: +44 (0) 20 7354 7961
email: ukinfo@eia-international.org

www.eia-international.org
EIA US

www.eia-global.org

This document was produced with the financial
assistance of the European Union. The contents
are the sole responsibility of EIA and can under nocircumstances be regarded as reflecting the positionof the European Union.

This material has been funded by UKaid from the
Department for International Development, however
the views expressed do not necessarily reflect thedepartment’s official policies.
February 2012