Consumer demand for expensive rosewood furniture and musical instruments in China and elsewhere is the primary driver of an ecologically devastating trade in illegal timber
In June 2009, Madagascar National Parks (MNP) with an official mandate of the Ministry of the Environment and Forests contracted Global Witness and the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) to investigate and monitor the flow of illegally harvested precious wood from the national parks and surrounding areas of Madagascar’s SAVA Region.
This illicit trade in rare, high-value species such as ebony, rosewood and pallisander serves export markets in China, the United States and Europe, where it is used to manufacture furniture and musical instruments. The quick profits on offer have fuelled a timber rush which has decimated Madagascar’s few remaining precious forests.
This report examines the international export networks involved and shows how this ongoing trade has been facilitated by the complicity of some of Madagascar's state authorities and weak law-enforcement by the country's transitional government.
Investigation Into the global trade in Malagasy precious woods: Rosewood, ebony and pallisander
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