Ebony wood is highly prized for its unique appearance and quality of grain, but controversy surrounds its harvesting from tropical rainforests. The US restricts the import of raw ebony wood, while international regulations under CITES aim to regulate the trade but raise prices and encourage illegal logging.
Ebony lumber is a type of decorative and construction wood obtained from various species of tropical trees of the genus Diospyros. It is most often a very dark brown or black wood which is highly prized for its unique appearance, density and quality of grain when made into furniture, cabinets or statues. Sources for ebony timber are primarily the nations of India and Sri Lanka where up to 80% of it is consumed domestically, but controversies have raged for years as of 2011 regarding the sale of ebony timber on the market international. This is because ebony wood like the related highly valuable woods mahogany and ceiba are harvested from tropical rainforests destroying that rainforest region in the process.
The United States has often been viewed as a major contributor to tropical rainforest deforestation, in large part because it has such a large economy and imports a large amount of wood to meet it. The United States has 5% of the world’s population as of 2011, but uses a total of 17% of all timber produced worldwide. However, there are restrictions in US law for importing ebony lumber, which were initiated with the Lacey Act passed by US Congress in 1900 and amended in the year 2008. The law basically states that raw ebony wood cannot be imported into the United States from nations such as India, but finished products made from ebony wood in India can be imported and sold within the borders of the United States. There are similar US restrictions on importing ebony, rosewood or other fine woods from nations such as Madagascar.
International restrictions attempting to regulate the global trade in ebony timber are managed under the 1973 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES. As of 2005, 124 nations had signed up to the CITES convention, which focuses on regulating or prohibiting the trade and sale of species that could lead to their extinction. CITES legislation also refers specifically to local nation laws on how natural resources are to be used, with which other importing nations must comply.
The effect of CITES on the ebony timber trade itself is controversial. This is because restricting the sale of these types of timber raises their price on the international market and encourages smuggling and illegal logging. Restricting overseas sales of ebony lumber as a raw natural resource that nations can use as a cash crop is also seen as discriminatory against developing nations. Relatively poor nations that have large tracts of tropical forest with ebony timber stocks can be seen as subject to oppressive foreign controls and intrusion, as well as complicated international bureaucracies they have difficulty complying with to develop their economies.
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