Rosewood trees remain endangered and sadly so. The measures rolled out so far to protect them from their human prey are not responding sufficiently to the interventions.
The impounding of two truckloads of the tree species a fortnight ago made disturbing headlines because the measures were expected to be working.
The discovery of the felled trees only when the illegal consignment hit the port and being processed for export is ample evidence about the persistence of the illegality.
We are constrained to be pessimistic about the effectiveness of the current protective measures.
While we applaud the Lands and Natural Resources Ministry’s decision to probe the circumstances underpinning the intended export of the protected trees the intention to create a local market for its use is certainly not the answer.
This would certainly encourage the felling of the endangered species. After all, a ready market would have been created, by so doing, for the wanton felling of the trees, which are on the endangered list.
We should not in any way encourage a variation of the standards of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITIES) whose protected list include rosewood trees.
We should be ashamed when the remaining rosewood trees in the Savannah Region and elsewhere in the north are further decimated by greedy and uncaring predators of the endangered species.
The ban on the use of rosewood should not be varied to exempt domestic utilization. The goal is to protect the species from human predators whose insatiable demand for the trees should not be encouraged under any circumstances.
Losing as much as six million rosewood trees as the Environmental Investigation Agency 2019 reports points out is a worrying revelation. This should spur us to do more to protect these economic trees.
Even more worrying is the fact that these trees are exported to countries which protect their forest cover.
If 23,478 24-footer containers were in spite of a ban on the species exported to China, between 2012 and 2019 the ban notwithstanding, the relevant authorities should plug the loopholes being exploited to our detriment.
With those engaged in the illegality ready to apply new tricks to outwit the law enforcement authorities the latter should work harder not to be fooled.
The Ministry-announced probe should be able to unearth a lot about how the exporters of the species are able to outwit the authorities.
With effective policing of our forests especially in rosewood growing parts of the northern region, there is no way the species can be felled let alone loaded onto trucks and driven to the port.
Let us be serious as a people by supporting protective measures rolled out by the state to protect endangered species because these are in the national interest.