The Indian exchequer is incurring huge losses due to restricted global trade in the rosewood (Dalbergia sissoo) from 2016 onward after it was listed under Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
According to the Government data, exports of furniture and handicrafts made of the species have fallen by almost 50 percent from an estimated Rs 1000 crore (USD 129 million) since the restriction imposed in 2016.
India has once again submitted its proposal before the CITES, a multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals, seeking its exclusion from Appendix II. Under Appendix II the species are not necessarily threatened with extinction, but in which trade must be controlled to avoid utilization incompatible with their survival. India has been opposing the move to include rosewood under a controlled trade ambit. The proposal has been sent to the CITES ahead of the nineteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to be held in Panama City (Republic of Panama) in November. “The decrease in exports of rosewood products has affected the livelihoods of around 50,000 artisans who work with the species.
It has also had a knock-on effect on the livelihoods of other stakeholders who are directly or indirectly connected with the trade of the species, in particular farmers who have been growing the species as part of agroforestry activities to generate additional income,” said India which has got the support from Nepal in the matter.
“The species has a very fast growth rate and capacity to become naturalized outside of its native range and is even invasive in some parts of the world. The regulation of trade in the species is not necessary to avoid it becoming eligible for inclusion in Appendix I in the near future and the harvest of specimens from the wild is not reducing the wild population to a level at which its survival might be threatened by continued harvesting or other influences.”
The species is sustainably utilized for its timber, fuelwood, fodder, medicines, etc. The species is native to Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Islamic Republic of Iran, Iraq, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, and South Africa; and has also been widely introduced, especially in Africa and Asia.
“It is even treated as invasive in Florida, USA and the Northern Territories, The wild population of D. sissoo does not fall under any Threatened categories.” To substantiate its claim, India has also quoted various studies like the NDF which “revealed that the harvest of D. sissoo is conducted mostly from planted/cultivated trees outside the locations of its wild occurrence.” According to ‘State Forest Report 2021’ (FSI, 2021), the total estimated number of trees of D. sissoo outside the forests in India is 7,57,62,000, India has said in its proposal document.
According to an official from the Union Environment Ministry, it was in the 17th COP, in Johannesburg in 2016, several African and Latin American countries had expressed concerns that there was a “rise in interest in wood of Dalbergia in international markets, primarily in China” which was fuelling an illegal trade at the cost of Dalbergia populations. “Although CITES focuses on protection of individual species, COP 17 put the entire genus under Appendix II, which regulates trade in species. Though most of the 182 member countries agreed to the proposal, India, for the first time, strongly expressed its reservation concerning the inclusion of all rosewood in Appendix II.
“The entire genus of Dalbergia was put in the appendix based on the “lookalike” criterion. This criterion is not based on the level of threat the species face, but on the difficulty of distinguishing the species from other threatened species of the genus”, as per the official.