High global demand for African hardwood is fuelling a devastating wave of illegal logging in Africa, an environmental crime that costs African countries up to US$17 billion annually. By value and by volume, rosewood is the most trafficked wildlife product worldwide.
Africa’s share of illegal rosewood exports to China soared from 40% in 2008 to 90% in 2018, says the United Nations (UN) Office on Drugs and Crime. In April 2022, an Environmental Investigation Agency analysis revealed that over three million tonnes of rosewood, valued at over US$2 billion, was illicitly traded between West Africa and China over five years.
The Gambia, a small West African nation known for its rich biodiversity, is impacted by this illicit 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 cut down the trees and sell the logs to dealers, who then bribe forestry officials to transport the illegally felled logs through backroads and forests to the country’s ports. Wood traders in Senegal and The Gambia then smuggle the wood in containers, mislabelled as peanuts or scrap metal exports, to China.
While The Gambia’s border with Senegal is porous, with limited checks on the flow of illegally sourced timber, the alleged corruption and involvement of government officials results in weak enforcement of regulations and consequently few prosecutions.
For over 40 years, the Casamance region of Senegal – a strip south of The Gambia – has been the primary source of illegally traded rosewood. This region has been embroiled in a long-running insurgency between the separatist Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance and the Senegalese government. The separatists rely on the illicit rosewood trade to fund their insurgency.
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 Jammeh and some of his business partners of exploiting the country’s timber resources and directly funding the insurgency in Casamance through his company, Westwood Gambia.
It is notable that from 2014 to 2017, Westwood was the sole timber company licensed for exports and played a significant role in the illegal rosewood trade. In 2019, a United States Department of Justice investigation found that Jammeh had misappropriated almost US$1 billion from public funds, including revenue from illegal timber.
In March 2022, CITES imposed a ban on felling, transporting and exporting Pterocarpus erinaceus (n all African countries where the species was endemic. The Adama Barrow administration implemented a ban that year.
However, Gambian forest guards say traffickers continue to collaborate with Chinese businesspeople and other local community members, using back routes to smuggle the timber out of the Senegalese Casamance and The Gambia. A Gambian Forest Guard, speaking to ENACT on the condition of anonymity, stated that a crackdown in The Gambia has made it more difficult to transport wood to the country’s ports. However, traffickers are colluding with officials to facilitate its export. Poverty and a lack of economic opportunities in rural areas fuel illegal logging and trafficking, with small operators felling trees on farmlands and in protected forests to sell to powerful business dealers.
The Gambia recognises the scale of the problem and the impact on its environment, economy and social fabric, and has taken steps to address illegal logging. In February 2017, The Gambia’s President, Adama Barrow, permanently revoked all timber permits and banned timber exports. The bans are still in place. The Forest Act of 2018 banned the felling and export of several species and criminalised the export of timber from The Gambia without proper authorisation. It would seem though that bans, while they may be necessary, are insufficient to stem the trade.
The Gambia is also helping the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) Global Transformation of Forests for People and Climate project to improve its capacity to monitor illegal logging.
In November 2022, the country unveiled its 2022-32 Agroforestry Strategy. While not addressing illegal logging directly, Senior Forest Ranger Alfred Mendy of the Environment, Climate Change and Natural Resources Ministry says the strategy aims to develop a foundation of natural resources strong enough to endure the impacts of climate change and support community wellbeing.
However, The Gambia’s National Forest Action Plan does address the challenge of illegal logging and the exploitation of forest resources more centrally. This plan has been in effect since 2018 and aims to ensure that timber is legally harvested and traded. It includes strict regulations for logging permits, tracking timber’s origin and compliance with sustainable forestry practices. The results have not been as robust as intended.
Forest Ranger Ibrahima Sow says The Gambia is also collaborating with Senegal. In 2018, President Barrow and Senegal’s President Macky Sall issued a joint declaration to combat the illegal timber trade. They agreed to intensify joint patrols to combat wood trafficking, establish an independent observatory on border practices, and exchange information on timber exports. The two countries are working together to identify traffickers and bring them to justice. Again, the results of this agreement are not clear.
Limited financial and technological resources also hinder The Gambia’s ability to monitor and control illegal logging. The government needs financial intelligence to track the profits from illegal logging and use digital traceability systems, like the databases of CITES/World Conservation Monitoring Centre and INTERPOL and the World Resources Institute Open Timber Portal, to disrupt timber laundering.
The Gambia’s ratification of CITES requires the government to publish information on timber permits and logging quotas, which it has not yet done. Meeting this obligation would show its commitment to establishing a more accountable forestry sector.
Implementing strategies such as ecotourism, agroforestry and sustainable agriculture would create sustainable livelihoods for local communities that depend on forests. The FAO has offered technical support to various countries, including Egypt, Hungary, Laos, the Philippines and Tunisia, to establish ecotourism initiatives rooted in sustainable forest management.
With proper 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 also generates revenue for reinvesting in conservation, fostering both environmental protection and economic growth.
Dr Feyi Ogunade, Regional Organised Crime Observatory Coordinator, West Africa
Image: The Gambia Times
