Online media seizure reports: A tool to monitor CITES implementation in regulating the international rosewood trade

Abstract

Rosewoods are a group of timber species exploited and harvested heavily in the region of Southeast Asia predominantly for luxury furniture consumption in China. In this paper, we demonstrate the use of online media seizure reports as a tool to monitor enforcement and CITES implementations of rosewood (hongmu) species using Thailand as a case-study.Three rosewood species are found in the region of Southeast Asia, including, Siamese rosewood (Dalbergia cochinchinensis), Burmese rosewood (D. bariensis), and Burmese paduak (Pterocarpus macrocarpus). We analysed 1895 independent seizure reports from January 2013 to December 2017. Despite Siamese rosewood accounting for the majority, we find that the other two species are also exploited for the same trade purposes through similar channels. The analysis suggests that while the border regions are key seizure activity zones, industrial shipping ports and sea-routes are also used to illegally export timber. The international scope of the trade in terms of unregulated movement of timber and humans poses regional security concerns. Inter-agency cooperation is vital in combatting the trade, both domestically and internationally.Current domestic enforcement is found to not coincide with international regulations such as CITES. The role of CITES in regulating the rosewood trade in Thailand is still not effectively acknowledged. It is imperative for individual countries in the region to strengthen domestic legislation whilst also increasing regional cooperation to effectively acknowledge and enforce CITES regulations. The methods used in this study are novel and can be applied for policy management, offering information in a real-time manner which may otherwise be unavailable for timber species.