page_title: Illegal logging in Madagascar
section_title: China
hierarchical_section_title: Illegal logging in Madagascar / Effects of the 2009 political crisis / Role of the international market / China
caption_attribution_description: English: Illegal stockpile and export of rosewood in Antalaha, Madagascar
context_page_description: Illegal logging has been a problem in Madagascar for decades and is perpetuated by extreme poverty and government corruption. Often taking the form of selective logging, the trade has been driven by high international demand for expensive, fine-grained lumber such as rosewood and ebony. Historically, logging and exporting in Madagascar have been regulated by the Malagasy government, although the logging of rare hardwoods was explicitly banned from protected areas in 2000. Since then, government orders and memos have intermittently alternated between permitting and banning exports of precious woods. The most commonly cited reason for permitting exports is to salvage valuable wood from cyclone damage, although this reasoning has come under heavy scrutiny. This oscillating availability of Malagasy rosewood and other precious woods has created a market of rising and falling prices, allowing traders or "timber barons" to stockpile illegally sourced logs during periodic bans and then flood the market when the trade windows open and prices are high. Over 350,000 trees were illegally felled in Madagascar between 2010 and 2015, according to TRAFFIC.
context_section_description: China is the largest consumer of tropical woods in the world.  As of 2008, it imports 45 million cubic meters of tropical wood per year, a fourfold increase since 1998.  Having depleted its own rosewood stands and those of nearby neighbors, such as Burma, Chinese timber importers have focused their attentions on Madagascar.  As a result, nearly all of the rosewood exported from the SAVA Region is shipped to Chinese import companies.  Malagasy precious woods are primarily shipped to four cities in China: Hong Kong, Dalian, Shanghai, Ganzhou.
  The international demand for Madagascar's precious woods, such as rosewood and ebony, is growing primarily due to a surge in the numbers of Chinese middle class over the last five years.  Furniture, such as armories, beds, and cabinets, styled after ornate designs from the Ming Dynasty fetch up to $10,000, and traditional Chinese instruments are associated with fine red grain of rosewood and have become a popular way for the Chinese middle class to express their new-found wealth.
  In 2009, the vast majority of the illegally obtained rosewood was exported to several Chinese ports.  On October 31 alone, 55 containers holding 7,267 logs, weighing 989 tons and valued at $11 million, were shipped to China from Vohémar.  It has also been demonstrated that illegal logging is funded with advance payments from Chinese buyers; and that the local rosewood mafia collude with the foreign profiteers, primarily from China.  The EIA and Global Witness reported further that logging operations also received significant funds from a network of Chinese importers based in Antananarivo.  These importers are part of a recently established expatriate community of Chinese people in Madagascar.  Many hold passports due to a questionable practice, started by the Prime Minister under former president Marc Ravalomanana, whereby Chinese immigrants could buy passports for 500,000 ariary or $2,500 per person.  According to an October issue of the Madagascar Tribune, these importers operate by selling Chinese household and electronic goods in Madagascar, using artificial customs declarations to under-report both their sales and their revenue, and then instead of repatriating the proceeds, they use the money to finance the tropical wood purchases of their compatriots in the SAVA Region.
  In addition to the loans from the international banks, this infusion of cash from the new Chinese community is essential to keeping the illegal logging going at times when the wood is blocked from export.  According to a local source, boxes of money were unloaded from small planes on November 28, 2009 in Sambava.  The money was sent from the bank-like system controlled by the Chinese community in Antananarivo.  This infusion of money came in response to two months of blocked rosewood exports at Vohémar, involving 170 containers that required a payment of a $35,500 "fine" per container.
caption: Rosewood stockpile sits on a beach near Antalaha, awaiting export to China or Europe
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