Following a multi-year investigation, the Environmental Investigation Agency found that over 500,000 tons of timber – including large quantities of rosewood – have been exported from Mozambique to China every year since 2017, in direct violation of CITES and Mozambique’s log export ban. According to a Mozambique government report summarised by the BBC, al-Shabab insurgents in Mozambique have utilised the illegal timber trade to “fuel and finance the reproduction of violence”. In particular, the illicit trade in rosewood has been linked to the financing of Islamic-State linked militants in the northernmost province of Cabo Delgado, with an estimated revenue of $1.9 million USD per month. While data on the specific nature of insurgents’ involvement in the timber trade is scarce, there have been reports of firms paying a 10% protection fee to the jihadist groups to carry out illegal logging in forest areas. According to trading sources, an estimated 30% of the timber logged in Cabo Delgado is at high risk of coming from insurgency-occupied forests. Rosewood is then typically shipped to China, where huge volumes are imported.