Yale Environment 360, an online magazine published at the Yale School of Environment, recently published a story titled “How Traffickers Got Away with the Biggest Rosewood Heist in History” by Zach St. George.
This story tells how 30,000 rosewood logs were illegally harvested in Madagascar and trafficked on a cargo ship to Singapore. And why they are now sitting in a warehouse, attracting termites.
According to the University of Oxford, “Timber harvested from rosewoods has been the world’s most trafficked wild product since 2005, accounting for 30-40% of the global illegal wildlife trade (more than all animal products put together).”
Many types are now critically endangered.
(For a deeper look, Yale Environment 360 published another article on rosewood in 2019, “The Rosewood Trade: An Illicit Trail from Forest to Furniture” by Sandy Ong and Edward Carver.)
In addition to the story of the heist, George’s article provides insight into why and how “the Rosewood Mafia” came to be.
Hat tip to Michael O’Brien for sending this article to us.
— Kara Gebhart Uhl
Rosewood species (Dalbergia) tend to be termite resistent.
Thank you for the interesting article.
An interesting read to be sure.