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Assignment: The trees that bleed

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The trees that bleed

12/03/2020 GMT

BBC World Service - Assignment, The trees that bleed

Illegal logging of the endangered rosewood tree is decimating forests in Casamance

Illegal logging of the endangered rosewood tree is decimating forests in Casamance in Senegal. The BBC investigates the trade worth trade worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

The rosewood tree is one of the most trafficked wild products on earth. When it is cut it bleeds a blood red sap. Having exhausted stocks elsewhere, Chinese traders have turned to West Africa to feed demand back home where the hardwood is prized for use in traditional Chinese furniture. In Senegal it is illegal to fell or export a rosewood tree. And yet they are being logged and smuggled at an alarming rate from the forests of Casamance, through the port of neighbouring Gambia and all the way to China. For Assignment, Umaru Fofana and BBC Africa Eye have been investigating the trade in trafficked rosewood worth hundreds of millions of dollars. 

Producer: Charlotte Attwood

(Image: A "bleeding" rosewood tree. Credit: BBC/Maxime Le Hegarat)

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