In the ongoing battle over violent trade.
The Siamese rosewood trees, which were granted a Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) listing in March, are most often cut by armed Cambodian or Laotian loggers who smuggle them out of Thailand to be sent to China and other countries.
The EIA intervened after the director of Thailand's Department of Natural Parks claimed demand for the rosewood was leading the armed logging gangs to steal from the Khao Yai-Dong Phayayen Forest Complex, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Chinese companies use the wood to make luxury Hongmu antique-style furniture, a multi-million dollar industry. This has driven rosewood prices up to as much as $50,000 per cubic meter, making illegal logging a profitable business for poor villagers, according to the EIA.
The Redwood Committee is in charge of regulating the Hongmu industry. The EIA points out that even though there is no legal source of Siamese rosewood, the committee still lists it as one of the 33 precious species it deems "legitimate" for use in Hongmu furniture.
"As long as China's Redwood Committee and trade federations continue to allow their members to trade in Siam Rosewood of illegal origin, all enforcement efforts by trade partners such as Thailand and other range state are being undermined," said Faith Doherty, head of the EIA Forests Campaign, in a statement.
"With Siam Rosewood now listed on CITES Appendix II, China's timber trade and Government have a clear responsibility to ensure they adequately implement this international convention. But this alone is not enough-China needs to address its wider consumption of illegally sourced timber by joining other major consumer markets such as the EU, the U.S., and Australia in banning it."
