The most trafficked endangered-species product in the world is not elephant ivory, rhino horn, or anything derived from the photogenic megafauna that traditionally grace charity calendars and conservation campaigns. It’s the lumber of the rosewood tree.
Despite—or, perhaps more accurately, because of—various attempts by governments worldwide to stop the trade in rosewood (an umbrella term for a number of tropical hardwood species that have dark-red, fragrant wood), the tree’s value continues to skyrocket. It is now at the center of a multi-billion-dollar illegal-logging network whose tentacles spread from the mountains of Guatemala, through the jungles of Gambia, to the rain forests of Cambodia. It is a global crime, but its main customer is the Chinese nouveau riche.
