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File picture. (Photograph by Jan Sochor/Getty Pictures)
The Gambia on Friday suspended all timber exports, following studies the West African state is serving as a transit level for the unlawful smuggling of endangered rosewood.
“All current permits issued for the export/re-export of timber are completely revoked,” the data ministry mentioned in an announcement, instructing port authorities to forestall any logs from being loaded onto ships.
“The export/re-export or import of Pterecarpus erinaceus is banned,” it added of endangered African rosewood used for woodworking and guarded below CITES, the Conference on Worldwide Commerce in Endangered Species.
There was no official rationalization for the ban, however it comes after studies of contraband timber passing via the nation, principally after being logged illegally in neighbouring Senegal’s Casamance area.
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The Environmental Investigation Company, a non-governmental organisation, mentioned in a report in 2020 that The Gambia has served as a transit level for an estimated 1.6 million rosewood timber since 2012.
Citing interviews with traffickers, the report added that rosewood smuggling “quickly exploded” in 2012 as a result of robust demand in China.
French transport large CMA CGM mentioned in 2020 it will droop all timber exports from The Gambia as a result of suspicions it had unwittingly shipped undeclared rosewood.
Casamance is separated geographically from the remainder of Senegal by the Gambia River, round which lies the tiny state of The Gambia.
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