CITES wood sales

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PatrickR

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For years it was very hard to find woods that were on the CITES list, especially rosewoods. Recently though it has been easy. I see Laotian rosewood, African Blackwood (a rosewood) and cocobolo being sold through IG out of Indonesia.
Has something changed? Or is customs just being lax?
Most of what I'm seeing appears to be trunk sections (not true burl but sold as such) cut into cookies selling for insane prices.
After getting into the US some are selling pen blanks for $100.
I find it bothersome on several levels.
Am I in the minority?
 
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I see it to. Under 20kg customs doesn't seem to care is what I have observed. I used to sell African blackwood burl and cocobolo burl pen blanks for $25 when I had the stock before covid. Now I see it selling for $100 a blank. Crazy
 
They appear to be harvesting stumps left from old logging. This happened with Brazilian rosewood. Now even that is gone.
It seems odd that Cocobolo from Mexico is being sold through Indonesia but that partially explains the price.
 
Even though a species may be listed in the CITES database and/or on the IUCN Red List, it can often still be exported but it is more difficult since it requires various permits for international trade. For Cocobolo as an example, Mexican and Nicaraguan sources are harder to find than that from Costa Rica. The only special species that I have had some experience with is Bois de rose as it is heavily restricted and endangered because it only grows in a narrow costal forest on the tiny African Island of Madagascar.

Dave
 
If they have exported it properly can it be shipped into the USA legally?
A decade ago I collected pieces of all the rosewoods that I could find. The only one I didn't get was huang.
It took forever to get Laotian (D Lanceolaria). It was sold as pre ban stock.
Today I can buy it very easily.
 
PatrickR said:
They appear to be harvesting stumps left from old logging. This happened with Brazilian rosewood. Now even that is gone.
It seems odd that Cocobolo from Mexico is being sold through Indonesia but that partially explains the price.
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I know for a while there was a guy on Facebook selling Dalbergia cochinchinensis as "Thai Cocobolo". I don't know why he felt the need to do that naming switcheroo. Siamese Rosewood has enough of its own caché.
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PatrickR said:
Interesting and sketchy. Appears to be an English first language person in the USA
That wood could be any number of kinds.
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Yeah, he's definitely American. I won't dox him here, but he's a dude who made exotic wood sales a post-retirement gig and he travels all over the world buying wood directly from locals to re-sell on Facebook (or wherever else). I actually believe what he was selling in that listing is the siamese rosewood he claimed it was, I just think it was weird for him to use an alternate name and confuse things. On another level, it's kinda crappy for him to be selling that stuff in the first place. That region has had a lot of trouble with poaching of their rosewoods.
 
hokie said:
Yeah, he's definitely American. I won't dox him here, but he's a dude who made exotic wood sales a post-retirement gig and he travels all over the world buying wood directly from locals to re-sell on Facebook (or wherever else). I actually believe what he was selling in that listing is the siamese rosewood he claimed it was, I just think it was weird for him to use an alternate name and confuse things. On another level, it's kinda crappy for him to be selling that stuff in the first place. That region has had a lot of trouble with poaching of their rosewoods.
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Crappy and as far as I know illegal to do with many rosewoods and ebonies. Like you I'm not gonna name names but it's going on in the pen community currently.
 
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