Wounaan communities fight illegal rosewood trade and share their story in new collaborative book

The Wounaan peoples of Panama and Colombia have long crafted objects from cocobolo rosewood, but a surge in global demand after the late 2000s turned the timber into a lucrative illegal commodity, fetching prices that later exceeded US$13,000 per cubic meter in China. Illegal loggers entered eastern Panama in 2011, prompting a three-month standoff that saw the murder of elected authority hapk'ʌʌn Aquilino Opua Puchicama and the subsequent killing of logger Ezequiel Batista.

Over four years the trade flourished, making Panama the 16th-largest rosewood exporter to China by 2014, while the species shifted from “vulnerable” to “critically endangered.” In response, the Wounaan National Congress, the Majé community congress and a university professor have produced the book "Interwoven Rosewood," which integrates scientific research, Indigenous oral histories and a critique of capitalist-colonial extraction.

The project emphasizes data sovereignty, collaborative planning and multilingual multimedia tools to share the narrative widely, with plans for a Spanish version and educational website for schoolchildren. The initiative seeks to preserve ancestral wisdom while advocating for a just future envisioned by the Wounaan themselves.