Known as the red timber, rosewood is a very ancient wood that is at its verge of extinction. A ton of rosewood can fetch as much US$17,000.00. It is very noted for its red colour and its super durability. It is used to make furniture for ships, it used for making fancy guitars and whole lot of home furniture.

As a specie of timber that is at the verge of extinction, bans have been placed on the cutting down of rosewood around the world. My records do inform me that even though the ban is in act, illegal cutting down of rosewood is still on going. In Cambodia and some parts of Thailand, this illegal cutting down of rosewood has led to massive destruction of vegetation. Since it is a plant that cannot be grown (It cannot be cultivated, it grows on its own) planting it after cutting it down is not possible.

I never knew of rosewood till January this year (2019) where I heard the Minister of Forest and Natural Resources in Ghana complaining bitterly about the illegal cutting of the plant. This gave me an interest to look into this matter and what I found out was very astonishing and disheartening.

I found out that in 2014, an alarm was raised to the government in authority about the illegal cutting down of the plant and the government in turn, placed a total ban on the cutting down of the plant since it is at the verge of extinction and another fact being it that it cannot be cultivated. One major problem that even caused the government to further enforce the ban is that, the people in the areas within which this plants were being illegally cut complained about the effect it is having on their climate. They were experiencing abnormal raining periods (Abnormal Climate) and this was making it very difficult for them to grow their crops. Their lands soon became bare and exposed to the sun. The lands loss most of its nutrients so cultivation of crops became a problem.

After the ban, various entities involved in this rosewood trade thought of a new way to cut down the trees and sell them to the outside world (Beyond Ghana and Africa as a whole). They therefore decided to pay loggers to cut down the trees illegally without the notice of the authorities then they send a salvaging letter to the Ministry of Forest and Natural Resources that they have found some rosewood plants which have fallen on they own so in order not to waste the plant, they are going to salvage them for sale. The ministry without thorough research would give them the go ahead and they go to pick the trees they paid the loggers to cut down and take advantage of their presence in the forest to cut down more rosewood trees. There were no strict regulations to rosewood salvaging till it got out of hand in 2019.

So I thought of it that what would make loggers who are Ghanaians to do such harm to the country knowing very well that there is a ban on it and without taking into consideration the effect it would bring on the country, Africa and the world as a whole. So I decided to delve deeper into this, to find out who were behind all this and to my amusement, it was white nationals and some people in authority.

With the white nationals, 80% of them were from China. So they go into the forest where the rosewood are located, they pay the corrupt officials there for as low as GH¢1000.00 which is roughly around US$180.00 to get access to the forest, then they pay loggers to cut down the trees. From there they send their salvaging letter to the ministry for approval. After it has been granted, they go into the forest and cut down all the rosewood in that location as part of the salvaging.

In 2018 last year, my research made me find out a story that, the people got fed up with this illegal loggers and decided to take matters into their own hands. They decided to not allow any cut down rosewood to be taken out of their town because they were not seeing any good the loggers were doing to help build their towns. A loaded truck of rosewood was sent out of a town without the people knowing. The rosewood was packed under plantain so not even the police took notice of it. In traffic, nobody knows what happened but the rosewood started falling from under the plantain unto the roads to an extreme extent that one landed on a five year old girl killing her instantly.

This has made the government to become more cautious hence, all rosewood cut down has been seized or are in the forest rotting. Special Forces have been made available to the Ministry of Forest and Natural Resources for protecting the forests. They are always killed in gun battle with this illegal loggers.

The buyers who are white nationals are aware that there is a ban on rosewood, yet they are willing to go every mile to pay for illegally obtained rosewood from anywhere at all. Temperatures around the towns from which these plants are gotten have increased. An increase in temperature no matter how small, will go a long way to affect global warming. I can only term this as “EXPLOTING AFRICA”. Because we lack the resources, some foreign nationals are still taking advantage of that to exploit us with corrupt officials available to help corroborate their course of action.

They should never forget that the illegal cutting of rosewood would bring money to their pockets alright but the effect of it on global warming would be experienced by each and every one of us.

#StopExploitingAfrica