Palo santo, a native species of the South American Great Chaco whose commercialization could put it in danger

(CNN Spanish) – Federal justice in Argentina advanced in recent weeks in an investigation into the alleged illegal felling of the tree known as palo santo, in a network that includes former officials who were in charge of protecting the environment.

The South American palo santo (Bulnesia sarmientoi) is a tree that can grow up to 15 meters in height, with thin trunks, between 20 and 40 centimeters wide. Its wood is hard and odorous, light brown in color. It is sold in rolls and its felling requires

the use of chainsaws to avoid cutting or damaging the logs, one of the lawyers involved in the court case explained to CNN.

The Bulnesia sarmientoi shares its popular name with another tree also known as palo santo, the “sacred wood”, which is burned for the popular energetic aromatization of environments, but which comes from another species called Bursera graveolens, which grows in Central America, as published The New York Times.

In contrast, the palo santo from the South American Gran Chaco only grows in parts of Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia and Argentina, and is used for the manufacture of furniture, floors and handicrafts, both for local production and for export to Asian markets.

Its use is also intended for the pharmaceutical industry, in the production of essential oils, Juan Pedro Cano, former national director of Bosques de Argentina, explained to CNN.

As of 2006, the Ministry of the Environment of Argentina began to increase controls on the international trade of palo santo “in order to detect illegal exports, based on expired, adulterated extraction permits and quotas granted by the provinces” where this species grows and that the national authorities considered “imprecise and / or overestimated”, as explained by the agency in a document on the National Strategic Plan for the sustainable management of palo santo.

The authorities’ interest was based on statistics: as of 2006, they began to observe that the production of palo santo rolls increased in Argentina and was destined for international trade, especially for exports to Asian countries, according to the aforementioned document.

In 2010, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), an international agreement between countries that seeks to control international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants, incorporated the

Bulnesia sarmientoi on its red list, to ensure that its international trade was regulated by the authorities and prevent the species from entering the risk of extinction.