Smugglers in Banjul showed Al Jazeera video footage of people loading rosewood logs onto a ship, saying it was a private vessel used exclusively for rosewood timber exports to China. The older they are, the bigger the circumference and the more valuable they are. A full container can fetch more than $15,000. According to Lamin, traffickers like him can get up to $1,000 per container. The process of exporting timber through Banjul’s port has become more difficult, according to the traffickers, who said obtaining export permits from authorities is no longer as easy as it was before. Private shipping lines, which used to be the main method of transport to China, stopped shipping timber in 2020. In 2012, the West African rosewood tree was officially classified as being on the brink of extinction in The Gambia. But the country, along with neighbouring Senegal and Guinea-Bissau, has continued to be among the primary suppliers of this species to China.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA
