HerbalEGram: Volume 7, Number 7, July 2010

Possible Hope for Madagascar's Rosewood

When a military-backed coup overtook the government of Madagascar one year ago, the once-stable island became rife with political and social turmoil.¹ In addition to tumultuous times for the country’s people, Madagascar’s animal and plant life is increasingly suffering.²

Though the vast majority of Madagascar’s forests were destroyed during the colonization period, the island remains one of the earth’s richest collections of plant and animal diversity. Located off Africa’s southeastern coast and completely isolated from the African continent, more than 90% of its thousands of plant species, 92% of its reptiles, 44% of its birds, and 100% of its native amphibians and land mammals, including the lemur, can be found nowhere else in the world.³

While former president Marc Ravalomanana, who resigned days before the coup, was considered a friend of conservation,⁴ current president Andry Rajoelina seems to be placing less importance on conservation, and the lack of political stability is reportedly enabling some traders and loggers to illegally harvest and slaughter protected forest plants and animals.² During the months following the new government’s rise to power, conservation workers have reported that armed groups are illegally logging large amounts of timber and killing lemurs and birds for food and to sell in local markets.

One of the most affected plants is rosewood, a valuable hardwood tree and source of essential oil that grows in the Masoala and Marojejy National Parks within Madagascar’s Mananara Biosphere Reserve. Rosewood has been severely overharvested in other areas of the world, as the tree’s essential oil must be collected by cutting down the tree or taking it from the roots, both practices that kill the tree. Brazilian rosewood (Aniba rosaeodora, Lauraceae), for example, was plentiful throughout the Amazon until decades of heavy demand from perfume and aromatic product manufacturers decimated its population.⁵ Brazilian rosewood was added to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species in 1997. Many believe this has helped to protect the species, but some also say it has increased pressure on the logging of native rosewoods populations in Madagascar.⁶

Madagascar’s rosewoods have been illegally logged for years, and the practice has apparently increased under the new administration. In early June of 2010, a French shipping company allegedly shipped 79 containers carrying hundreds of tons of rosewood, worth about $16 million, that was illegally logged from Madagascar’s forests.⁷ The shipment is said to have been ordered by Madagascar’s prime minister, despite the government’s self-imposed moratorium on timber exports signed by the prime minister himself.

“This trafficking upsurge has happened mainly because of the political crisis that destabilized the official structures: the legislative branch to follow-up the government does not exist anymore, the government itself does not have the power or resources to control the situation, some political stakeholders or government members profit by the situation, and the international community cannot influence the administration since there is no recognition,” said Ndranto Razakamanarina, a policy officer for the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF), which has been campaigning against the illegal harvest of timber products in Madagascar for more than 2 years.

While it is difficult to precisely determine for what the shipped rosewood will be used, a report from WildMadagascar.org identifies several import companies, including China Meheco Traditional Medicines and Health Products Import and Export Corporation. This could indicate that, in addition to suspected usage for expensive furniture and musical instruments, the rosewood’s essential oil might be used in aromatherapy or herbal medicines. Studies have shown rosewood essential oil to be an inhibitor of yeast infections in vitro,⁸ and epicatechin, a polyphenol flavonoid isolated from the bark of rosewood, to have significant anti-diabetic effects in vitro.⁹

But offering some hope for the dire situation, Madagascar’s CITES delegation requested, just days after the alleged shipment of illegal rosewood, that all of the country’s precious wood species be listed under the convention’s Appendix III.⁶ Being listed on Appendix III, which may be voluntarily done or undone at any time and by any CITES party, requires the species to have proper certification and/or permits in order to be traded.¹⁰ The new listing will go into effect in 90 days.⁶

“This listing is considered as an implementation of the [Madagascar government’s] decree released on March 24, 2010, that bans all new logging, exploitation, and exports of precious wood,” said Tiana Ramahaleo, conservation planning and species program coordinator at WWF’s Madagascar and Western Indian Ocean Program Office. “With this system, we can go back to the government to push them to reinforce the law within the country. When the environment minister announced himself Madagascar's submission of the proposal to CITES, he pledged that no ‘special permits’ (ie. special authorizations) will be issued from now on.”

Though this listing does not stop the trade of rosewood and other precious woods, it aims to make it more difficult. Additionally, WWF and its international partners are urging Madagascar precious woods to be listed under CITES Appendix II in 2013, which could actively restrict and support trade bans if necessary.⁶

“It is evident that in the setting up of good management of these species, China will play a central role,” said Ramahaleo. “We are confident that [with] the enlisting in the appendix III, the support from WWF-China, TRAFFIC Asia (a joint programme of WWF and IUCN), and the Chinese CITES authority, we can expect a more regulated importation of these species from this country. The trade is global, so the response should be global too.”

—Lindsay Stafford

Photo captions in order of appearance:

1) Lemur on a forest tree in Madagascar. ©2010 WWF/Martina Lippuner
2) Rosewood logs waiting to be exported remain stocked in some of Madagascar's parks, villages, and ports. ©2010 WWF/Martina Lippuner

References

1. Madagascar country profile. BBC News website. Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/country_profiles/1063208.stm#facts. Accessed June 22, 2010.

2. Brahic C. Madagascar biodiversity under threat as gangs run wild. New Scientist. 2009:204(2730).

3. Vences M, Wollenberg KC, Vieites DR, Lees DC. Madagascar as a model region of species diversification. Trends in Ecology & Evolution. 2009; 24(8):456-465.

4. Bohannon J. AFRICA: Madagascar's coup endangers science and scientists. Science. 2009;323(5922):1654-1655.

5. Cavaliere C. Brazilian women promote sustainable harvesting of endangered rosewoods. HerbalGram. 2007; 73:56 American Botanical Council. Available at: http://cms.herbalgram.org/herbalgram/issue73/article3091.html.

6. Listing of precious woods a glimmer of hope for ravaged Madagascar [press release]. World Wildlife Fund. June 18, 2010. Available at: http://wwf.panda.org/wwf_news/news/?193885/Glimmer-of-hope-for-ravaged-Madagascar--as-precious-woods-nominated-for-trade-restrictions.

7. Rainforest slaughter continues in Madagascar despite "ban" on timber exports. Wildmadagascar.org. June 21, 2010. Available at: http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0621-madagascar_logging.html. Accessed June 26, 2010.

8. Oppel MN. Essential oils tested for candida infections: mountain savory, lemongrass, and cinnamon bark are the most promising. HerbClip. May 15, 2008. (No. 090672-352). Austin, TX: American Botanical Council. Review of Selection of essential oil components to inhibit Candida without affecting normal microbiota by Oberg K, Rolling L, Oberg C. The Journal of the Utah Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 2005;82:60-72.

9. Oliff HS. How botanical compounds alter gene transcription. HerbClip. July 14, 2006. (No. 100555-308). Austin, TX: American Botanical Council. Review of Regulation of gene transcription by botanicals: novel regulatory mechanisms by Shay N, Banz W. Annu Rev Nutr. 2005;25:297-315.

10. The CITES Appendices. Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora website. Available at: http://www.cites.org/eng/app/index.shtml. Accessed June 22, 2010.