RED SANDERS IS NOW FREE OF EXPORT RESTRICTIONS

GS 3: Environment | Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment

Why in News?

  • The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), an agency of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry has revised its export policy to permit its export if it is obtained from cultivated land.
  • All red sanders farmers, who were not allowed to export their produce as the foreign trade policy prohibited it, now can.

Highlights:

  • Ironically, the Indian government had itself asked for quotas to export red sanders from CITES as the tree is categorised as a species that needs protection. Estimates suggest that there are more than 3,000 farmers across India who were unable to sell their produce due to the earlier export policy.
  • Earlier, only seized logs from smugglers were being exported depending on state government rules. However, red sanders remain listed in the Appendix II of CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora).

Restrictions:

  • The tree is endemic to several districts in Andhra Pradesh and some parts of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. But over-exploitation prompted the Union government in the 1980s to recommend inclusion of red sanders in Appendix II of CITES.
  • The Appendix II says that trade must be controlled in order to avoid utilization incompatible with their survival.
  • The species was listed in Appendix II of CITES in 1995, and subsequently export of red sanders was prohibited in 2004.

Lifting restrictions:

  • In 2010, when the CITES was planning to suspend trade of red sanders obtained from India, the government submitted a Non-Detriment Finding (NDF) report saying it must be allowed to export from cultivated sources.
  • So in 2012, India got an export quota on red sanders from CITES, under which the country could export 310 tonnes of red sanders obtained from “artificially propagated” sources and 11,806 tonnes of wood from seized sources.

Boosting Farmers and exports:

  • Though a farmer can grow the tree, he/she requires permits to fell and transport the wood, which was difficult to obtain. Moreover, the price of this wood in the domestic market is less than half of what it is in the international market as the demand is low.
  • At the same time, the farmer could not even export it earlier as the foreign trade policy prohibited it. The GoI should also create a separate Timber Development Board under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare as a single-window system for all farming activities to facilitate export process.

Red Sanders:

  • Red sanders (Pterocarpus santalinus), known for its rich hue and therapeutic properties, is high in demand across Asia, particularly in China and Japan.
  • It is used in cosmetics and medicinal products as well as for making furniture, woodcraft and musical instruments. Its popularity can be gauged from the fact that a tonne of red sanders costs anything between Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1 crore in the international market.
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