Panels & Furniture Asia September/October 2020
Panels & Furniture Asia (PFA) is a leading regional trade magazine dedicated to the woodbased panel, furniture and flooring processing industry. Published bi-monthly since 2000, PFA delivers authentic journalism to cover the latest news, technology, machinery, projects, products and trade events throughout the sector. With a hardcopy and digital readership comprising manufacturers, designers and specifiers, among others, PFA is the platform of choice for connecting brands across the global woodworking landscape.
Panels & Furniture Asia (PFA) is a leading regional trade magazine dedicated to the woodbased panel, furniture and flooring processing industry. Published bi-monthly since 2000, PFA delivers authentic journalism to cover the latest news, technology, machinery, projects, products and trade events throughout the sector. With a hardcopy and digital readership comprising manufacturers, designers and specifiers, among others, PFA is the platform of choice for connecting brands across the global woodworking landscape.
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
46 | MATERIALS<br />
<strong>September</strong> / <strong>October</strong> <strong>2020</strong>, Issue 5 | <strong>Panels</strong> & <strong>Furniture</strong> <strong>Asia</strong><br />
A traded tree: What rosewood<br />
means for Africa<br />
By Paolo Omar Cerutti<br />
Every time I get interested in one particular value chain –<br />
especially those that start in the forests of sub-Saharan<br />
Africa – I wonder whether I’ll contribute to closing the<br />
barn door before or after the horses have left.<br />
This conundrum is readily exemplified in the example of research<br />
conducted in the delicate Miombo forests of southern Africa,<br />
situated between Zambia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo<br />
(DRC) and various neighbours.<br />
The "hero" of this story is rosewood. The illegal trade in the<br />
wood is one of the world’s most lucrative businesses, and<br />
affects much of South East <strong>Asia</strong> and parts of Africa and South<br />
America. When demand started to increase in West Africa<br />
around 2010, exports went from basically zero to hundreds<br />
of millions of dollars in just a few years. And, rosewood’s<br />
exploitation is causing a range of environmental and<br />
socioeconomic disasters.
Change language