The Silent Forest - Part Two
The Documentary Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 2.6K Ratings
🗓️ 1 October 2017
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Siamese Rosewood tree is now so valuable that two small pieces carried in a rucksack are worth $500. This kind of money means that armed criminal gangs up to a hundred strong have stripped the forests of Thailand bare of the Rosewood. Nearly all of it is destined for the Chinese rosewood ‘hongmu’ furniture market. And, in the north-west of Thailand, the Karen people are trying to create a 'peace park' to preserve their natural habitat. Can they stem the storm of exploitation and destruction and keep their forests alive and vibrant?
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello from the BBC World Service and welcome to the latest edition of the documentary |
| 0:05.5 | podcast. Every week we bring you a range of stories from our presenters and reporters |
| 0:11.0 | across the world. If you have the time, please rate the documentary on your podcast app and leave us a comment. |
| 0:17.0 | Let us know what you think. |
| 0:19.0 | Here, behind a locked gate and a floor to ceiling wire fence, bundles of homemade wooden rifles, piles |
| 0:28.1 | of chainsaws and wheeled axles for dragging the timber through the forest and then room after room stacked to the roof with dark red densely-grained hardwood. |
| 0:40.0 | The rosewood itself, the treasure everyone's after. |
| 0:44.0 | But not the people of Thailand. |
| 0:47.0 | It was known as the tree in the forest where the spirit resided. |
| 0:51.0 | It has an almost mystical value. So Ties were a little bit apprehensive about ever |
| 0:57.6 | including it in part of their house because they would bring the spirit of the forest |
| 1:01.6 | into their house as well. It was left in Thailand. |
| 1:05.0 | Tim Redford, who runs the Surviving Together program of the NGO Freeland. |
| 1:10.0 | So why the huge demand? |
| 1:12.0 | Since the Olympics in China... So why the huge demand? |
| 1:12.5 | Since the Olympics in China, they wanted to renovate some of the forbidden city in Beijing |
| 1:18.5 | and it was originally built in Rosewood. |
| 1:20.6 | So they wanted Rosewood and so it led to a little bit of a craze of rosewood in China which is called |
| 1:25.8 | Hongmoo there. |
| 1:27.8 | Dr. Chamion Verret and Chippen of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature has been working with affected communities |
| 1:35.6 | for 40 years. |
| 1:37.6 | This tree has turned up to be painted with blood. When you say it is painted in blood? |
... |
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