Threatened West African rosewood species gets CITES protection
▻http://news.mongabay.com/2016/02/threatened-west-african-rosewood-species-gets-cites-protection
Over the past few years, West Africa has become one of the largest tropical log exporting regions feeding the growing demand for luxury furniture in Southeast Asia.
Demand is booming in China and, to a lesser extent, Vietnam for furniture and other goods made from hongmu, or rosewood, a term used to refer to a wide range of richly hued tropical hardwoods from Africa, Asia and Latin America that belong to the genera Dalbergia and Pterocarpus.
Last week, the Secretariat of the Convention on Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) officially announced the listing of the West African rosewood species Pterocarpus erinaceus on Appendix III of the Convention, meaning that all international trade in the species will be subject to international regulation.
P. erinaceus, known as “kosso” in China, is an increasingly threatened species native to the vulnerable savannah ecosystems of West Africa. The over-harvesting of kosso is “increasing the risk of desertification and depriving local communities of a resource traditionally used for fuel, construction, musical instruments, traditional medicine and animal fodder,” according to a report by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) released last year.
