Cambodia exported hundreds of millions of dollars worth of threatened Siamese rosewood in the 18 months after ratifying a 2013 international protocol designed to protect the species from destructive trade, according to a report released on Friday.
Produced by the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), the report states that Cambodia and Laos “fundamentally undermined efforts to curb trade” in Siamese rosewood after the species was added to Appendix II of the U.N. Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), to which both countries are signatories.
“Neither Laos nor Cambodia have credible inventories of remaining populations to justify any exports at all, or likely any evidence of legality, as required under the Convention,” said a statement accompanying the report.
When Siamese rosewood was first listed as threatened in March 2013, EIA called the move a “significant step forward” in protecting a species threatened by soaring Chinese demand for rosewood furniture.
Exports of species listed under Appendix II must be accompanied by a permit before being accepted by another country, and those permits can only be issued if the exporting country can prove the exports do not threaten the species’ survival, according to the agency’s website.
The EIA said on Friday that Cambodia could not provide justification for the more than 12,000 cubic meters of rosewood that, according to a CITES database, it exported to China and Vietnam between June 2013 and December 2014. Please read more...
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