Endangered species of Pericopsis

Until a couple of human generations ago, Pericopsis elata, commonly called Afrormosia, was widespread in West and Central Africa. Ivory Coast was full of it — from Liberia in the west all the way to the eastern border with Ghana. Its populations were a mainstay of the forests of Nigeria, Cameroon and the Republic of Congo. Ghana shipped the first Afrormosia to world markets in 1948 and thereafter exploitation using mechanized logging was rapid and quickly unsustainable. By 1992, Afrormosia was added to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) a list of species that face extinction should their trade not be adequately regulated. Six years later it was placed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Endangered Species. Today it can no longer be found in Ivory Coast at all, and only small pockets survive in its other former territories. The last major stand persists in the Congo, but is under threat.