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Recently, the Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) issued a "Convention" announcing the suspension of international trade in West African rosewood-Pterocarpus erinaceus, which applies to 16 major African exporting countries to protect the The environment in which species live.

Hedgehog red sandalwood is currently the world's largest traded rosewood species. In 2006, it was imported into the domestic rosewood market from Togo on a large scale. After 2008, driven by a large mahogany factory, its production and sales have accounted for more than half of the entire mahogany furniture market for many years.

The Convention, which is binding on all 184 CITES member countries, will no longer be allowed to import illegal West African Hedgehog rosewood. A total of seven countries voluntarily set zero export quotas for the commercial trade of red sandalwood: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Niger, Senegal, and Sierra Leone.

At the same time, commercial trade (including export, re-export and import) of Hedgehog red sandalwood in seven other countries where Hedgehog red sandalwood is distributed was immediately stopped: Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Togo.

For the sample batches of Hedgehog red sandalwood that have departed from Hong Kong in the exporting country or re-exporting country with valid licenses before the announcement of the Party's Notification No. 2022/021 on March 28, 2022, they will be collected by the importing party in accordance with the "Convention". "required to trade, accept or reject these goods at its sole discretion.

"This is also a very important victory for West African countries who have bravely stepped forward and sought international help to stop the criminal destruction of their natural resources," said Raphael Edou, Africa program manager for the EIA Forest Campaign in the United States.

With the surge in market demand, the resources of red sandalwood in Africa are rapidly depleting, and it has been listed as an international second-level endangered species.