Illegal logging in Africa costs the continent up to $17 billion annually. A high global demand for African hardwood fuels this environmental crime. By value and by volume, rosewood is the most trafficked wildlife product worldwide.
Africa’s share of illegal rosewood exports to China surged from 40 per cent in 2008 to 90 per cent in 2018, says the United Nations (UN) Office on Drugs and Crime. In 2022, an Environmental Investigation Agency analysis revealed that over three million tonnes of rosewood, valued at more than $2 billion, were illicitly traded between West Africa and China over five years.
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The Gambia, a small West African nation known for its rich biodiversity, is severely impacted by this trade. Even though it ratified the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in August 1977, most of the 1.6 million rosewood trees exported from The Gambia between 2012 and 2020 violated the convention.
A former Senegalese rosewood trafficker, now a state forest guard, who requested anonymity, said the trade operated inside a clandestine network in The Gambia and Senegal. Locals fell trees and sold the logs to dealers, who bribed forestry officials to transport the illegally cut logs along backroads and through forests to the country’s ports. Traders in Senegal and The Gambia then smuggle the wood in mislabelled containers to China.
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The Gambia’s border with Senegal is porous, with limited checks on the flow of illegally sourced timber. Alleged corruption involving government officials weakens enforcement of regulations, limiting the number of prosecutions.
For over 40 years, Senegal’s Casamance region – a strip south of The Gambia – has been the primary source of illegally traded rosewood. The region has been embroiled in an insurgency between the separatist Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance and Senegal’s government. The separatists rely on the illicit rosewood trade to fund their insurgency.
The Gambia and Senegal’s Casamance region
Political elitism has also played a part in this illegal logging. During Yahya Jammeh’s rule from 1996 to 2017, The Gambia’s wood trade, especially with China, and trafficking from the Senegal side of the Casamance reportedly surged to its highest levels. TRIAL International accused Mr Jammeh and some of his business partners of exploiting the country’s timber resources and directly funding the Casamance insurgency through his company, Westwood Gambia.
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From 2014-17, Westwood was the sole timber company licensed for exports and played a significant role in the illegal rosewood trade. In 2019, a United States Justice Department investigation found that Mr Jammeh had misappropriated almost $1 billion from public funds, including revenue from illegal timber.
In March 2022, CITES banned felling, transporting and exporting Pterocarpus erinaceus (Senegal rosewood) in all African countries where the species was endemic. The Gambia’s government implemented a national ban that year.
However, Gambian forest guards say traffickers continue to collaborate with Chinese businesspeople and local community members, using back routes to smuggle the timber out of the Casamance and The Gambia.
One said that although a crackdown in The Gambia made it harder to transport wood to the ports, traffickers colluded with officials to facilitate exports. Poverty and scant economic opportunities in rural areas fuel illegal logging and trafficking, with small operators felling trees on farmlands and in protected forests to sell to dealers.
The Gambia recognises the scale of the problem and the impact on its environment, economy and social fabric. In February 2017, President Adama Barrow permanently revoked all timber permits and banned timber exports. The 2018 Forest Act prohibited the felling and export of several species and criminalised timber export from The Gambia without proper authorisation.
But bans alone won’t stem the trade. The Gambia is also helping the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation to improve its capacity to monitor illegal logging.
The country’s 2022 Agroforestry Strategy doesn’t directly address illegal logging, but aims to develop a foundation of natural resources strong enough to endure climate change and support community wellbeing, says Senior Forest Ranger Alfred Mendy.
In contrast, The Gambia’s National Forest Action Plan – in effect since 2018 – tackles the problem head on. The plan aims to ensure that timber is legally harvested and traded and includes strict regulations for logging permits, tracking timber’s origin and compliance with sustainable forestry practices. But the results have not been as robust as intended.
Forest Ranger Ibrahima Sow says The Gambia collaborates with Senegal to deal with the illegal trade. In 2018, Mr Barrow and Macky Sall, Senegal’s then president, issued a joint declaration committing to intensify joint patrols, establish an independent observatory on border practices, exchange information on timber exports, identify traffickers and bring them to justice. But again, the outcomes of this agreement aren’t clear.
Limited financial and technological resources hinder The Gambia’s ability to monitor and control illegal logging. The government also needs financial intelligence to track the profits from the illicit trade, and digital traceability systems to disrupt timber laundering.
The Gambia’s ratification of CITES requires the government to publish information on timber permits and logging quotas, which has not happened. Doing so would show its commitment to establishing a more accountable forestry sector.
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Ecotourism, agroforestry and sustainable agriculture could create sustainable livelihoods for local communities that depend on forests. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization has offered technical support to various countries to establish ecotourism initiatives rooted in sustainable forest management.
Ecotourism can protect endangered forests by balancing conservation and tourism. The Gambia’s biodiversity offers potential for nature-based tourism, engaging local communities as eco-guides, lodge operators or artisans.
This approach not only supports livelihoods but generates revenue for reinvesting in conservation, fostering both environmental protection and economic growth.
Dr Feyi Ogunade, West Africa Organised Crime Observatory Coordinator, ENACT, Institute for Security Studies (ISS)
ENACT is funded by the European Union and implemented by the Institute for Security Studies in partnership with INTERPOL and the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime.
(This article was first published by ISS Today, a Premium Times syndication partner. We have their permission to republish).
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