Customs officers have seized a major haul of kevazingo, a precious wood whose exploitation is banned in Gabon where it is considered sacred, a report said Wednesday.

About 1,000 cubic metres of the rare hardwood -- or 30 large container-loads -- were confiscated along with other wood in a warehouse at the Owendo timber port on the Libreville peninsula last week, campaigning group Conservation Justice reported.

The head of the Chinese business that owned the warehouse and two other employees had been arrested and remained in custody, the group said.

Timber from kevazingo trees, which take many years to mature, is highly valued in Asia and fetches very high prices.

Depending on quality kevazingo, also known as bubinga, can fetch up to 1.2 million CFA francs (1,800 euros, $2,000) per cubic metre, say specialists.

It is listed as under threat by CITES, the international convention covering endangered animals and flora.

Gabon banned its exploitation in March last year as illegal felling reached alarming proportions. Forest dwellers in equatorial Africa consider it sacred.

Gabon's, 80-percent covered by forest, is known for its rich biodiversity.

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Complete world map of tree diversity
Leipzig, Germany (SPX) Feb 25, 2019
The biodiversity of our planet is one of our most precious resources. However, for most places in the world, we only have a tiny picture of what this diversity actually is. Researchers at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) and Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) have now succeeded in constructing, from scattered data, a world map of biodiversity showing numbers of tree species. With the new map, the researchers were able to infer what drives the global distr ... read more