Siamese Rosewood Logging Destroys More Than Trees

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Siamese Rosewood Logging Destroys More Than Trees

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The guardians of Siamese rosewood
Rangers have been arresting fewer poachers in Thailand’s national parks, largely because so few rosewoods still stand
Ryn Jirenuwat, Tyler Roney
January 28, 2021

“We bury a GPS tracker in the wood. We call them rabbits,” says Cheewapap Cheewatham, director of Thailand’s Forest Protection and Fire Control Bureau, part of the forestry department. He tells China Dialogue that they used to just impound as evidence cut rosewood they found in the forest. Now they follow it. “We even stopped a shipping vessel from leaving.”

For years, Thailand’s authorities have been fighting a deadly war on the border with Cambodia and Laos to prevent the poaching of rare and valuable Siamese rosewood (Dalbergia cochinchinensis). The forestry officials chase their “rabbits” all the way to China, where the wood is usually made into furniture and can fetch as much as US$100,000 per cubic metre.

Forestry officials are also implanting rabbits in uncut trees and developing versions that can monitor sound within a one-kilometre radius, keeping a digital ear open for cars and saws.

Technology for protecting Siamese rosewood, and the other endangered trees of Thailand’s national parks, continues to improve – motion sensors, camera traps, drones – but decades of illegal smuggling mean there are few full-grown Siamese rosewoods left in the wild.

“Trees that were big enough to be sold and used were all cut down. Only smaller trees are left,” Cheevatham says. A single mature tree can be 200 years old and fetch huge sums, but after about 60 years of growth, loggers may consider a tree big enough to cut. “One of the problems of losing the big trees is that they are parents that will shed seeds… We now have to wait at least 10 years for the smaller trees to grow. When parent trees are cut down, the whole ecological system changes.”
Branches of an illegally logged Siamese rosewood tree left behind by poachers in the Ta Phraya National Park (Image: Luke Duggleby)

To prevent the illegal logging and trafficking, rangers in rapid response teams patrol from the Khao Yai National Park, just 120 kilometres from Bangkok, to Ta Phraya on the Cambodia border. They have become well-known for their intense training and jungle battles with smugglers.

Full article (worth a read): https://chinadialogue.net/en/nature/the ... -rosewood/
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