Thailand's forest rangers step up training in violent 'blood wood' war

[webfact]

Thailand's forest rangers step up training in violent 'blood wood' war
Demelza Stokes, Ta Phraya national park

The forests of the Mekong region have become a battleground as rangers try to stop poachers from driving the Siamese rosewood tree to extinction

BANGKOK: -- It’s dawn in Thailand’s Eastern forest, and the sound of combat boots echoes through the jungle mist at Ta Phraya national park’s headquarters.

The stomping boots belong to forest rangers on a counter-poaching tactics course. They are training with Hasadin, a team of elite rangers formed in June 2015, whose mission is to stop the Siamese rosewood tree from being driven to extinction by poachers.

“The poachers don’t care if we’re rangers ... if they meet us and they have weapons in their hands, they shoot immediately without warning,” says Piroon Pilaphop, leader of Hasadin’s Dong Yai wildlife sanctuary team.

Siamese rosewood is a hardwood species confined to the remaining forested areas of just four countries in the Mekong region – Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. Renowned for its blood-red colour, the highly coveted endangered species is illegally logged in Thailand and smuggled through mainland south-east Asia to luxury “hongmu” furniture markets in China.

Full story: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jan/05/thailands-forest-rangers-step-up-training-in-violent-blood-wood-war

-- The Guardian 2016-01-05

[ratcatcher]

."..the sound of combat boots echoes through the jungle ...."

Just what every enemy and poacher loves to hear. Might as well play martial music as well.

Set the Gurkhas on the poachers and the trees might well be saved.

[DeepInTheForest]

Also known as Dalbergia cochinchinensis.

It can bring $95,000 per cubic meter on the Chinese market these days, according to the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature, which publishes the famous red list). It's prized for use in making furniture and musical instruments.

http://cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/dalbergia_cochinchinensis.pdf

In 2013 it was listed in Appendix II of CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora), which means that a permit is required to sell it across international borders.

The hongmu, or luxury furniture business, is booming as newly-minted elites seek to display their wealth. The furniture can cost in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Hongmu wood imports from Burma and Laos have skyrocketed since 2010. See the graphic in this piece from mongabay.com:

http://news.mongabay.com/2014/05/chinese-luxury-furniture-linked-to-murder-near-extinction/

It's very beautiful in the wild-- or at least it was. It is a legume, incidentally-- as you can see by the pictures of the seed pods in the link below. Yes, trees can be legumes.

http://www.natureloveyou.sg/Dalbergia%20cochinchinensis/Main.html