Gambia Bans Export of Endangered Rosewood, Again

Gambia has banned all exports of timber to curb rampant illegal logging and protect critically endangered African rosewood, but conservationists remain skeptical that the ban will be enforced.

Haidar el Ali, Senegal's former environment minister and the former director of the country's reforestation agency, said Gambia banned rosewood exports in the past, but the laws were seldom enforced. El Ali said that this time it may be different. Gambia's latest ban comes one month after the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITIES), suspended all international trade of rosewood from West Africa.

Rosewood is one of the world's most trafficked wildlife commodities, fuelled largely by high demand from China, where the wood is used to make high-end antique-style furniture. The trade runs rampant throughout West Africa, where forests have been decimated and soil degraded.