"The guardians of Siamese rosewood" 28 January 2021

For years, Thailand’s authorities have been fighting a deadly war on the border with Cambodia and Laos to prevent the poaching of rare and valuable Siamese rosewood (Dalbergia cochinchinensis). The forestry officials chase their “rabbits” all the way to China, where the wood is usually made into furniture and can fetch as much as US$100,000 per cubic metre.

Thailand had found little use for Siamese rosewood prior to the boom, but it is extremely sought after in China, where it is known as hongmu (red wood). [...]

Yaba is an inexpensive mix of caffeine and methamphetamine. Drugs play an important role in the trafficking of Siamese rosewood and other illegal timbers to China as both a way to launder money and pay for labour.

“They’re taking this meth problem back to these little communities, and then these kids get addicted, so to get more money they need to commit more crimes, and it just goes around and around,” Redford says. “So it’s not just illegal logging. It’s poaching, it’s smuggling of anything. It’s theft and burglary and more drug sales in the communities. You wouldn’t believe the damage this is doing.” [...]