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Forests

China’s Hongmu Consumption Boom

Analysis of the Chinese Rosewood Trade and Links to Illegal Activity in Tropical Forested Countries

By Naomi Basik Treanor - Forest Trends
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China’s demand for rosewood – used for classical Chinesestyle furniture and décor – is threatening some of the world’s most valuable and endangered old-growth forests. Chinese furniture manufacturers’ imports of several species of rosewood, collectively known as hongmu, have soared at an unprecedented rate since 2010 and hit an all-time high in 2014, according to China’s customs data and reported in a new study by Forest Trends, an international non-profit organization. This trade is fueling illegal harvesting of rosewood in the last remaining forests of Southeast Asia and, increasingly, Africa.

As the largest global consumer of rosewood, China has seen the volume of its imports increase 1,250 percent since 2000. From 2013 to 2014 alone, the value of these imported rosewood nearly doubled, reaching US$2.6 billion.

  Download the Report (English)          Download the Report (Chinese)

Download the Executive Summary (French)

Download the Press Release (English)

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIALS

Figure. Comparison of China’s Rosewood Log and Sawnwood Imports and Rosewood Furniture Exports

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Envol de la consommation chinoise de hongmu

By Naomi Basik Treanor - Forest Trends
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中国的红木消费热潮 (China’s Hongmu Consumption Boom)

中国红木贸易及其与热带国家非法森林活动关系之分析 (Analysis of the Chinese Rosewood Trade and Links to Illegal Activity in Tropical Forested Countries)

By Naomi Treanor- Forest Trends