This report warns that the tropical hardwood species merbau (or kwila) will be extinct within 35 years or less if action is not taken to stop the destructive logging and trade of the species.
Merbau, once common from eastern Africa throughout Asia and Oceania, is only found in significant quantities today on the island of New Guinea, in Papua (Indonesia) and Papua New Guinea. The World Conservation Union lists merbau as "facing a high risk of extinction in the wild in the near future", and although Indonesia has stated that it intended to list merbau on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), that has never occurred.
