El pueblo indígena wounaan ha hecho frente a la tala ilegal de palo de rosa y a siglos de explotación con sabiduría y belleza

In a large pile, fallen rosewood logs are stacked. These logs, of an unidentified specific species, are found in Madagascar, a significant point of global rosewood trade. Wikimedia Commons Maky The Wounaan people, living in parts of present-day Panama and Colombia for millennia, have carved and sculpted various types of wood. The cocobolo rosewood, Dalbergia retusa, is especially valued for carving ceremonial swords used in traditional medicine and commercial art depicting tropical plants and animals.

The Wounaan are among many worldwide who have utilized rosewood to produce a wide range of items, including weapons' hilts, furniture, and musical instruments. There are now over 140 species of trees commercially traded as rosewood, all with a beautiful and dense wood that generally has a reddish tone. Rosewood is popular for its intense color and fine texture.

This display is of cocobolo, Dalbergia retusa. Pommeroys via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA Since the late 2000s, global demand for rosewood exceeded legal supply. These beautiful woods became popular investments, particularly during China's housing boom, as well as prized tonal woods used in musical instrument manufacturing. By 2012, cocobolo's value in China had skyrocketed to over $13,000 per cubic meter, three times higher than red oak, which is around $1,500 per cubic meter.

In 2011, some rosewood log cutters began illegally cutting cocobolo trees in mature forests in eastern Panama, home to the Wounaan people. In Panama, most Wounaan and many Emberá have no legal rights to these forest lands, despite inhabiting them for generations. After the illegal loggers' invasion, the elected Wounaan authorities filed complaints with various Panamanian officials and sought support from the press and public opinion.

However, this was only the beginning. During that first logging season, a three-month standoff occurred between illegal loggers and Wounaan community members. One logger killed a traditional authority figure, hapk'ʌʌn Aquilino Opua Puchicama. In response, logger Ezequiel Batista was killed. The Wounaan realized that loggers were willing to kill to obtain rosewood.

By 2014, Panama was ranked 16th in the world by the volume of timber sold to China and 11th by timber value. That year, China imported 10,827 cubic meters of rosewood logs and 4,731 cubic meters of rosewood sawn wood from Panama, valued jointly at $55.5 million. Before rosewood's surge, the International Union for Conservation of Nature had classified cocobolo as "vulnerable, with a high risk of extinction in the wild."

However, in 2019 it was reevaluated as "critically endangered." This history, like a mostly linear sequence of tragic and catastrophic events, is told. However, in our investigation and presentation, we chose a different approach, one that reflects and encompasses the lives, values, science, and experiences of the Wounaan, revealing not only losses but also the joy of resistance and caring for others.

An attempt to provide "traceability" through physical labels with barcodes – allowing extractors, regulators, and clients to track logs – never successfully prevented illegal logging in Panama.