Timber exports from Gambia face scrutiny after exposé of rosewood smuggling
Research by BBC and pressure group shows that shipping companies have been smuggling rosewood from Gambia to China
Compagnie Maritime d’Affrètement Compagnie Générale Maritime (CMA CGM) has stopped exporting wood from Gambia after alleged acts of rosewood smuggling were uncovered.
The shipping company is the fourth largest in the world for exports of any form of wood.
In March, an investigation by BBC Africa Eye showed that vast quantities of protected rosewood were being trafficked through Gambia.
A separate investigation by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) found that the wood was being smuggled to China.
Officials in Gambia have denied any involvement in the smuggling but the menace has been going on for years.
Plans for blacklist
The director of sustainability for CMA CGM, Guilhem Isaac Georges, said the company stopped exports of the wood after its own investigations.
“There was probably some protected rosewood inside [partner companies’] shipments from Gambia to China,” he told the BBC.
He said to help curb the problem the firm has decided to “decided to halt its timber exports from the country until further notice”.
Meanwhile, CMA CGM has announced plans to blacklist all shippers across the world that are involved in the illegal trade in protected and endangered species.
Multimillion-dollar business
Rosewood is a rare and valuable wood that is popular in many Asian countries, particularly China.
The BBC reports that over 300,000 tonnes of West African rosewood has been imported from Gambia to China since 2007.
Gambia has previously declared that its stock is close to extinction but the country is still among the five largest global exporters of rosewood.
However, the Casamance region of southern Senegal has been the heart of the smuggling business, before the wood is moved to Gambia and eventually transported to China.
The BBC investigation uncovered that a long stretch of the border between Gambia and Senegal has at least 12 depots containing rosewood and other timbers.
Haidar el Ali, a former Senegalese minister of environment, believes there has been a great deal of talk but little action to stop the illegal trade.
“It’s Gambia that has to stop the export of rosewood. They make good speeches, good promises, they say: ‘We are going to stop,’ but in reality it is not true,” he told reporters.
E A Alanore
* Asaase Radio 99.5 – now live on your radio. Tune in or log on to broadcasts online.
#asaaseradio
#TVOL
