China's Rosewood Imports from Africa Harm Environment

 Foreign Policy published on 9 September 2025 an article titled "China's Appetite for Rosewood Is Causing Chaos in Africa" by Caroline Costello and Joshua Eisenman.  

China imported an estimated $2 billion of rosewood from Africa between 2017 and 2022.  Much of the logging for this rare timber is illegal.  Extreme drought and flooding linked to the loss of rosewood trees have had devastating agricultural impacts.

Illegal Logging, China, Africa, and the US

 Foreign Affairs published on 2 June 2025 an article titled "The War on Trees: How Illegal Logging Funds Cartels, Terrorists, and Rogue Regimes" by Justyna Gudzowska and Laura Ferris. 

China is a major player in the global illegal logging industry.  Much of the timber comes from Africa.  Without a concerted effort by China to stop the trade, demand will ensure that it continues. The United States is complicit in that American consumers purchase many of the Chinese products manufactured with illegal timber.  

Corruption Fuels Illegal Rosewood Smuggling from Ghana to China

 The China Global South project published on 15 January 2024 a study titled "Lack of Political Will in Ghana Fuels Illegal Rosewood Logging, Smuggling to China" by Nosmot Gbadamosi.  

China is the world's largest deforester of other nations.  Corrupt Ghanian officials and corrupt Chinese businessmen contribute to the problem by illegally logging valuable rosewood in Ghana and smuggling it to China.  

Cameroon, Nigeria, China and Illegal Rosewood

 Africa Uncensored, an independent media house in Kenya, published in February 2022 an investigative report titled "Timber Logging and Crime: How Rosewood Is Stolen in Cameroon, Laundered in Nigeria, and Exported to China" by Christian Locka.

Cameroonian woodcutters illegally cut rare rosewood and then transport it to Nigeria for final shipment to China.  Strong Chinese demand has resulted in organized looting of rosewood forests in several African countries.

Zambian Officials and Chinese Businessmen Illegally Export Rosewood to China

The Environmental Investigation Agency recently published a report titled "Mukula Cartel: How Timber Tafficking Networks Plunder Zambian Forests."

Senior Zambian officials have reportedly orchestrated and facilitated massive trafficking operations that are driving mukula rosewood trees to the edge of commercial extinction, devastating vulnerable forests, and threatening communities' livelihoods. The State-owned company Zambia Forestry and Forest Industries Corporation Limited (ZAFFICO) is secretly used as a cover for well-connected Zambian officials and Chinese business operators to export thousands of mukula logs, despite a ban on their export. The overwhelming majority of the logs goes to China. This expose quotes Chinese entrepreneurs who engage in bribery to facilitate the exports.

Ghanaian Rosewood Exports to China Threaten Species

Ghanabusiness.com recently posted a detailed account titled "China's Lust for Rosewood Fuels Logging in Ghana's Poorest Region" by Emmanuel K. Dogbevi.

Demand for rosewood in China has grown exponentially over the past 15 years. Ghana is the second largest source, after Nigeria, of rosewood exported to China from West Africa. Ghana has put a ban on cutting down rosewood trees but not on collecting and exporting wood that has fallen on its own. This has not prevented, however, the massive cutting of trees by local Ghanaians who are protected by local politicians. Nearly all of the wood is exported to China by local Chinese companies.

At the current rate of harvesting, it is estimated rosewood will disappear from this part of Ghana in three years. The unrestrained harvesting is having a negative impact on the fragile ecology of the savannah regions of Ghana and other West African countries where it is found.

China Rosewood Purchases Providing Little Benefit to Zambia

The Conversation posted on 25 June 2018 a commentary titled "Why Zambia Has Not Benefitted from Its Rosewood Trade with China" by Paolo Omar Cerutti and Davison Gumbo, both with the Centre for International Forestry Research.

There is a huge demand in China for rosewood logs to make antique furniture. Africa, and particularly Zambia, has become a key exporter of rosewood to China. But Zambia's forests are being decimated causing serious environmental degradation. Zambian officials have little incentive to ensure the trade is properly regulated and corruption is rampant.

Nigeria, China, and the Rosewood Racket

The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), a London and Washington-based environmental advocacy organization, published in October 2017 a report titled "The Rosewood Racket: China's Billion Dollar Illegal Timber Trade and the Devastation of Nigeria's Forests."

Most of the billion dollars' worth of wood exported by Nigeria over the past four years was illegal. According to EIA, Chinese businessmen and Nigerian officials were largely responsible for these illegal exports to China.

Chinese Demand for Bloodwood Raises Environmental Issues in DRC

Sixth Tone, an online publication in China that belongs to the state-funded Shanghai United Media Group, published on 20 January 2017 an article titled "Chinese Demand for Bloodwood Cuts into Congo's Ecosystem" by Shi Yi.

Bloodwood or rosewood is the common name for the mukula tree. The red-tinted wood is used in China to manufacture high grade furniture. About ten Chinese-owned bloodwood trading companies operate out of Lubumbashi, some of the companies having left Zambia because of stricter environmental laws or diminishing availability of the mukula tree. Environmentalists and some DRC officials are beginning to express concern at the impact on forests by the cutting of the tree. DRC laws ban foreigners from operating logging concessions but a combination of corruption and desire by local officials to create jobs for African wood cutters has ignored the ban. The government of China has put in place reasonable voluntary guidelines for Chinese timber companies, but these guidelines are often ignored. Chinese companies can import the timber into China so long as they provide documents to show it was exported legally--documents that can be purchased easily in the DRC. At some point, the timber will be gone and the logging will end, with a negative impact on the DRC's ecosystem.