He said the men who do the back-breaking work dragging the logs out of the forest are paid $2.50 a day. Merchants pay $50 (£32) for a log that is 3m long. That same timber will fetch more than $1,300 (£832) at the main Madagascan port of Toamasina.
“We make a tiny amount of money from this business. Everything is illegal. Everything is corrupt.”
And this is a very lucrative business. It has been estimated that rosewood worth $220m (£141m) was exported from Madagascar last year.
Most of it was destined for China, where demand is fuelled by a growing middle-class with a desire for imperial-style furniture. In June this year, alone, 79 containers of rosewood were shipped out – cargo worth some $16m (£10.2m).
Environmental damage
Loggers fell many other trees to ease access to the rosewood, creating a real threat to Madagascar’s unique wildlife.
“The loggers go a long way into the forest to find the rosewood,” says Armand Marozafy, who has been guiding in Masoala for more than 15 years. “They only carry rice with them. But that’s not enough to eat, so they make traps for the lemurs. Sometimes they even shoot them.”
The Director of the Masoala National Park, Haja Salava, is shocked by what is happening.
“There was always rosewood logging in the park, but since 2009 it’s the worst thing I’ve ever seen. The only thing we can do is identify where it’s happening and inform the forestry service or the police. We need a sustainable solution, and a political one.”
The administration of Andry Rajoelina has recently become more proactive, and officials have raided properties where rosewood logs were hidden.
“Logging licences were issued before the transitional government came to power last year,” says Serge Rainaivo, a close political ally of the president and a minister in the transitional government.
“Protecting the environment is one of our top priorities. We are tackling this problem – it’s prohibited to log and export rosewood.”
The port of Maraonsetra is a hub for the transit of illicit rosewood. And at a time of severe economic hardship in Madagascar, it has provided a business bonanza for many of the local cargo boats.
Armand Marozafy has witnessed the shipments coming and going: “Normally I see around two big boats a week. That’s at least 100 tonnes of rosewood that has been lost from the forest.”
