News about the poaching and smuggling of threatened species often centers on products like tiger bone, rhino horn or pangolin scales. But much of the world’s illegally sourced wildlife products are actually trees — in particular, 33 hardwood species in the Dalbergia genus, better known as rosewood. Rosewood can sell for tens of thousands of dollars per cubic meter and has the highest overall trafficking value of any wildlife product in the world: Between 2014 and 2018, rosewood accounted for 32% of the monetary value of illegally traded wildlife products seized by law enforcement. But a recent paper in the journal Biological Conservation finds that new technologies could save the world’s rosewoods from being little more than plunder. Demand for the richly colored, aromatic and durable timber continues to grow in China, where rosewood furniture has long been a symbol of status and luxury. International regulations have failed to stop the rampant harvesting of the tropical trees, whose value only grows with their increasing rarity. Two Southeast Asian species — Siamese (Dalbergia cochinchinensis) and Burmese rosewood (D. oliveri) — are now critically endangered, driving rosewood traders to other rainforests in Africa and South America. This appetite threatens the very existence of the unique trees as well as their important ecological roles, such as enriching soil with nitrogen, reducing soil erosion, and providing habitat for wildlife. But technologies exist that could help stop the trees’ plight, according to the paper by a team of scientists at Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden’s Center…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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