Siamese rosewood is said to be more valuable than gold, driven by high black-market demand for this protected species, particularly in China.
Its precious status was underscored last week when an armed gang held up a forest protection unit in the northeastern province of Sakon Nakhon, the latest criminal case involving the coveted wood.
The past decade has witnessed a deadly war between Thai authorities and Siamese rosewood poachers, resulting in numerous deaths and injuries on both sides.
The conflict resurfaced on Saturday night, when five men wielding guns and knives raided the forestry unit, tied up three officials, and made off with 20 Siamese rosewood logs worth about 800,000 baht. The stolen lumber had been confiscated from illegal loggers.
A forestry employee in neighbouring Udon Thani province has been arrested in connection with the robbery, having previously been transferred from the Sakon Nakhon unit as punishment for poor performance and absenteeism. The man, identified as Sgt Theptawan Suriyamat, has since been dismissed from the service, according to the Royal Forest Department.
Wood of wealth and prosperity
Siamese rosewood (Dalbergia cochinchinensis, or “phayung” in Thai) is an ancient hardwood species found in the Mekong region spanning Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos. Illegal logging has cleared vast swathes of Siamese rosewood over recent decades, sparking predictions it could go extinct by 2026.
But after a huge conservation push, Thailand’s forests now host the largest remaining stocks of Siamese rosewood in this region. As such, the kingdom has been hailed as the last guardian of this disappearing species.
The Thai Commerce Ministry last year issued a ban on the export of Siamese rosewood – whether in the form of logs, timber, pot plants, or wood products.
Yet, the wood’s high value continues to drive poachers and traffickers to break the law, cutting the trees in Thai forests and smuggling them out of the country – often aided by corrupt Thai officials.
Siamese rosewood is coveted in China as a sign of wealth and prosperity. There, the hardwood is carved into valuable furniture and fetches up to US$100,000 (3.5 million baht) per cubic metre, online news outlet Dialogue Earth reported in 2021.
In Thailand, Siamese rosewood from legal plantations fetches between 100,000 and 500,000 baht per cubic metre – about 10 times more than teakwood. After being smuggled abroad, the same rosewood rises in value by five to 10 times.
Siamese rosewood prices began spiking amid the increase in Chinese millionaires and during the lead-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the UK-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) reported in 2013.
The high-quality and durable wood was used in repairs at the Forbidden City in the Chinese capital ahead of the 2008 sporting showcase. Large quantities of rosewood also reportedly turned up Chinese souvenirs made for visitors at the time.
In 2011, EIA investigators recorded a rosewood bed for sale in China for $1 million.
“Since then, black market prices have rocketed, making Siam rosewood more valuable than gold,” the agency said.
Critically endangered
In 2013, Siamese rosewood was listed in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) as alarm bells rang over its survival. CITES signatories are required to combat threats of extinction and ensure commercial trade in the species is legal, sustainable, and traceable.
But the CITES listing had “largely failed because the actions of Cambodia and Laos have fundamentally undermined efforts to curb trade” in the wood, the EIA said in 2016.
EIA reported that trees illegally cut in areas such as Thailand’s Thap Lan National Park were being smuggled into Cambodia and Laos and resold with export permits either forged or granted illicitly by those countries.
In 2022, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) named Siamese rosewood as “critically endangered” in its Red List of Threatened Species. The IUCN noted that at least 80% of trees had disappeared over just three generations, the majority lost since the late 1990s.
Thap Lan is one of four Thai national parks, along with a wildlife sanctuary in the Dong Phayayen-Khao Yai Forest Complex, that have become hotspots for Siamese rosewood poaching.
Its proximity to the Cambodian border makes the forest complex, a UNESCO World Heritage site spanning 6,155 square kilometres and six provinces, particularly vulnerable to cross-border poaching.
