The Environmental Investigative Agency recommended suspending trade of protected wood species from Nigeria in its latest report, “The Rosewood Racket: China’s Billion Dollar Illegal Timber Trade and the Devastation of Nigeria’s Forests,” about the increasing trade in illegally logged timber between the African country and manufacturers in China.
The report, put together over two years, stated that almost all kosso, or African rosewood, wood coming from and through Nigeria since 2014 has been illegal. Thousands of permits from the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) “were used in contravention” of the Convention, the report stated.
“Exporters and agents indicated repeatedly to EIA investigators that the bribes paid to senior officials in Nigeria were the single triggering factor for the issuance of several thousands of CITES permits by the Nigerian Management Authority,” according to the report. “Sources clarified that the documents issued to the agents were shared with Chinese importers who used them to clear one seized shipment after another in China.”
