A BBC Africa report released on Monday shows how rosewood, felled in Casamance, southern Senegal, is then transported to Gambia where it is exported to China. Over the past six years, an estimated 10,000 hectares of forest have been felled while national and international protective measures are in place...

In Casamance, one million trees have been felled illegally, a third of the region's forests, according to the Institute for Security Studies in Dakar. The situation has worsened over the last ten years or so, in particular, because of the increased demand for rosewood in China, where it is highly appreciated for the manufacture of luxury furniture...

The wood is transported from the Casamance region to the neighbouring Gambia and then exported to Asia. As a result, the Gambia is Africa's second-largest exporter of rosewood to China, while its forests are almost entirely decimated. The value of these exports is estimated at nearly $300 million over the last six years...

Yet international agreements are supposed to protect rosewood. Senegal and the Gambia are both signatories to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.  A convention that is supposed to subject countries to very strict regulations on exports. But according to many NGOs, this convention is far from being respected...