In the Gambia, which earns about 10 percent of its GDP through timber trafficking, former Gambian President Yahya Jammeh is accused of having trafficked rosewood through a company he co-founded, Westwood Gambia Limited. 

Westwood was granted exclusive timber export rights that allowed it to collect fees from timber traffickers to facilitate illegal exports. According to an Environmental Investigation Agency report (2020a), corruption within the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Natural Resources and the Department of Parks and Wildlife Management (the CITES Management Authority) ensured traffickers working through the company received the documents and permits required for export. 

This allowed Westwood and timber traffickers working through them to sell at least USD 163 million worth of rosewood to China from 2014 to 2017. Despite efforts at reform, NGOs claim that the model has continued unimpeded under the name of a new company. 

From 2017–2020, the Gambia exported nearly 330 tons of rosewood to China illegally logged in Senegal’s Casamance region, despite multiple national and regional export bans