Global demand for high-end furniture and decorative veneers, manufactured in enormous Chinese production mills, has led to West African rosewood emerging as the world’s most trafficked illegal wildlife commodity. That is according to a group of experts who warn that exports of rosewood from Ghana, Cameroon and Nigeria topped $2 billion between 2017 and 2022, with prices surging to $20,000 per metric ton.
“Driven almost entirely by Chinese demand, rosewood is now the world’s most trafficked illegal wildlife product in terms of both value and volume, surpassing ivory and rhinoceros horn combined,” according to a new Atlantic Council brief, which highlights how well-organised smuggling rings exploit weak oversight and opaque concession records.
In Ghana, forestry authorities estimate that 70 per cent of rosewood harvesting occurs outside of legal channels, whilst across the border in Cameroon and Nigeria, unauthorised logging accounts for 65 per cent and 56 per cent of total production despite bans and licensing intended to protect dwindling reserves.
Customs officials in Accra and Lagos describe nightly convoys of trucks sneaking across poorly patrolled land frontiers. Whilst at coastal ports, containers labelled as “legal timber,” agricultural produce or even “scrap metal” routinely disguise rosewood bound for Chinese mills. Satellite analysis cited in the brief shows that forest cover in key rosewood zones has contracted by as much as 20 per cent over the past five years. Newly carved logging roads now snake into remote reserves, opening mature stands to both artisanal and organised operators.
“China’s demand for timber and illegal wildlife products contributes significantly to deforestation and biodiversity loss in West Africa,” the report warns, underscoring the environmental stakes of unregulated rosewood exports.
Enterprising loggers, lured by rapid profits, often clear entire rosewood stands regardless of tree age or size. Once felled, logs are air-dried to prevent cracking, then shipped to eastern China, where veneer mills slice them thin for use on medium-density fiberboard, plywood and solid-wood furniture frames.
The illegal trade also fuels regional insecurity: Revenues from illegal rosewood have reportedly financed separatist fighters in Senegal’s Casamance region and armed groups linked to extremist movements in Mozambique and Nigeria. In response, West African governments have implemented bans on rosewood exports, intensified border patrols, and promoted community forestry initiatives.
And yet enforcement suffers from “weak institutional capacity” and “corruption,” with many agencies admitting they lack the resources to police dense forest tracts effectively. As a result, advocates are calling on the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to mount a unified regional crackdown. To do this, the brief recommends that ECOWAS “establish a binding regional forestry code of conduct, share intelligence on illegal timber routes and publish annual compliance reports,” drawing on the European Union’s FLEGT action plan as a model.
Trade experts are also urging leaders to press Beijing to convert its voluntary Green Belt and Road environmental guidelines into enforceable standards for Chinese firms overseas: “Without binding agreements, Chinese importers have little incentive to reject tainted timber,” the brief cautions.
Some Chinese furniture manufacturers have begun sourcing certified wood and investing in sustainable plantations, though industry insiders say these efforts remain limited in scale. They argue that consumer awareness campaigns in China, combined with stronger corporate social responsibility commitments, could shift demand toward legally harvested alternatives.
For rural communities, the stakes are severe. Rosewood logging disrupts water cycles, accelerates soil erosion and threatens food security for smallholder farmers. It also deprives governments of revenue critical to funding schools, clinics and infrastructure in remote areas.
With global scrutiny intensifying around deforestation and biodiversity loss, activists hope the spotlight on rosewood will spur decisive action ahead of next year’s UN Convention on Biological Diversity summit: “If we fail to act now, these majestic forests and the livelihoods they sustain will disappear under the weight of an insatiable global market.”
