Traffickers often prefer to export and import protected wood species through zones with weak or no protections. When species protections are uneven across neighbouring jurisdictions, the risk of illegal activity within the supply chain increases.

For example, traffickers are known to move large amounts of illegally logged teak from Myanmar to China via overland routes. According to Myanmar law, all timber exports must transit through the port in Yangon. All overland trade is prohibited. However, large seizures in the hundreds of tonnes across the border in China indicate the presence of sophisticated cross-border trafficking networks and corrupt officials.

Similarly, despite Senegal prohibiting the felling or export of rosewood, most of the Gambia’s rosewood exports are made up of trees illegally cut in Senegal’s Casamance region. Rosewood is consolidated along the border with Senegal, then rough-hewn into squared-off logs, loaded onto trucks and transported to Banjul for onward export to Asia.