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25 Dec, 2013

Madagascar’s forests vanish to feed taste for rosewood in west and China | The Guardian

Blood-red sawdust coats every surface in the small carpentry workshop, where Primo Jean Besy is at the lathe fashioning vases out of ruby-coloured logs.

Besy and his father are small-scale carpenters in Antalaha in north-east Madagascar, and are taking advantage of a recent resurgence in demand for wood from the bois de rose tree, prized for the extraordinary coloured streaks that weave through its centre.

“It’s easy to sell because the wood is so famous,” said Besy, whose skin glistens with red powder. “People from [the capital] Antananarivo come here [to buy goods]. They like it because they can sell it to foreigners.”

The father and son pair are just the tip of the booming trade in bois de rose, one of the world’s rarest trees, even though the logging and export of rosewood from Madagascar is banned.

Read the rest: Madagascar’s forests vanish to feed taste for rosewood in west and China | World news | The Guardian.