By Ryn Jirenuwat and Tyler Roney
China Dialogue
“We bury a GPS tracker in the wood. We call them rabbits,” said Cheewapap Cheewatham, director of the Thai forestry department’s forest protection agency. He told China Dialogue they used to just impound as evidence cut rosewood found in the forest. Now they follow it. “We even stopped a shipping vessel from leaving.”
For years, Thailand’s authorities have been fighting a deadly war on the border with Cambodia and Laos to prevent the poaching of rare and valuable Siamese rosewood (Dalbergia cochinchinensis). The forestry officials chase their “rabbits” all the way to China, where the wood is usually made into furniture and can fetch as much as USD$100,000 (THB3 million) per cubic meter.
Forestry officials are also implanting rabbits in uncut trees and developing versions that can monitor sound within a…
