Rare hardwood sparks gunfights, corruption in Asia

KOH KONG, CAMBODIA — A Thai force dubbed the “Rambo Army” couldn’t stop the gangs, armed with battlefield weaponry, as they scoured the forests. Neither could a brave activist, gunned down when he came to investigate. Nor, apparently, can governments across Southeast Asia. The root of the conflicts and bloodshed? Rosewood. The richly hued, brownish hardwood is being illegally ripped from Southeast Asian forests, then smuggled by sea and air to be turned into Chinese furniture that can sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Some of it also ends up in the finest American guitars, or as billiard cues. … In Koh Kong, a jungle region of southwest Cambodia where most villagers earn less than $2 a day, finding a rosewood tree is better than winning the lottery. A cubic meter (1.3 cubic yards) of top-grade rosewood last year could be sold for up to $2,700 to middlemen who hover around forests and construction sites of dams and roads in Thailand, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam. …  

http://www.bradenton.com/2012/11/24/4291081/rare-hardwood-sparks-gunfights.html