Rosewood Exports Violate UN Treaty: Org

The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) released a report this week saying Cambodia is in direct violation of a UN treaty due to the increased logging and export of rosewood. Siamese rosewood, designated an endangered species by the UN due in part to the voracious appetite for it in China, is protected under the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

While the CITES Appendix II protection for Siamese rosewood took effect in March 2013, during the first 18 months of its enforcement Cambodia continued to export copious amounts of the wood, with more than 12,000 cubic meters of Siamese rosewood being given legal permits for export from the Kingdom between June 2013 and December 2014. “In one year alone, Laos and Cambodia appear to have harvested and exported a volume equivalent to the largest known population of Siamese rosewood remaining in the world,” the report said.

Wood species with CITES designation are not necessarily banned from international trade, but their export must be authorized by a country only if “relevant authorities are satisfied trade will not be detrimental to the survival of the species in the wild and that the timber is legal,” the report added. Prime Minister Hun Sen doubled down on the CITES designation for rosewood, telling neighboring countries in 2013 that the trade and distribution of rosewood had been banned, while imploring them to stop buying rosewood from Cambodia.

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