At Vermont Woods Studios, our mission is rooted in defending forests and selling moral, eco-friendly furnishings craftsmanship. That’s why we solely use North American hardwoods sourced from sustainably managed forests—by no means endangered or illegally harvested tropical woods.
If you happen to’ve come throughout stunning furnishings made out of rosewood, teak, or purpleheart, you may be stunned to study that many unique hardwoods include a hidden price: deforestation, species extinction, unlawful logging, and severe human rights violations.
On this information, we’ll discover why selecting American-made wooden furnishings is a extra sustainable, moral different—and which unique wooden species are finest averted.
Purpleheart
Purpleheart, generally identified for its stunning purple hue, can also be identified for its power and sturdiness as a hardwood. Due to its desired purple colour, the purpleheart is turning into more and more uncommon and on the verge of extinction in its native origins of Central and South America.
The harvesting of purpleheart contributes to deforestation throughout the Amazon rainforest, demolishes the properties of indigenous peoples, threatens already endangered wildlife, and feeds worldwide crime rings with reference to unlawful logging practices.
Purpleheart is often present in turnery, costly furnishings, specialty objects, cabinetwork, park benches, framing, musical devices.
Rosewood
Typically known as the ‘ivory of the forest,’ rosewood is probably the most broadly traded unlawful product on the earth in the present day. Not solely does rosewood develop in endangered forests, however this tree species takes many a long time to develop to a viable measurement for business manufacturing, and centuries to succeed in full maturity. With the extremely excessive demand for rosewood furnishings in China, rosewood bushes have been harvested to the brink of extinction in China, Southeast Asia, Africa and now Madagascar.
The unlawful trafficking of rosewood in Madagascar has change into so environment friendly that when a conservation group or native involved residents discover out concerning the unlawful practices, the entire finest and most mature rosewood bushes are already lower down. That is extraordinarily problematic as a result of Madagascar is an extremely wealthy and various biosphere, dwelling to many, already endangered wildlife, just like the lemurs. Tall rosewood bushes act as nesting areas for lemurs, when they’re eliminated, lemurs are pressured out of their native properties that they use for cover and resting from predators.
Rosewood is often present in veneer for ornamental plywood, cutlery handles, image frames, billiard cues and craft objects, in addition to bigger furnishings items in China.
Ramin
Ramin is a powerful, light-colored wooden with effective texture that grows natively within the Borneo rainforest in Southeast Asia. It’s mostly present in furnishings, moldings, plywoods, flooring, dowels, software handles, drying racks, image frames — and infrequently stained to match veneers of extra worthwhile species.
Teak
Teak is a shiny hardwood, usually marketed because the ‘gold customary’ for out of doors flooring, furnishings and doorways as a result of it’s rot-resistant properties. Nonetheless, the environmental price of teak is excessive. Native to Southeast Asia, particularly Thailand, India, and Indonesia, teak bushes at the moment are endangered as a result of over-harvesting.
Demand is so excessive for teak wooden that business plantations have sprung up in Latin America and elements of Africa, and whereas this will sound like an excellent factor, these plantations are changing wealthy, biodiverse tropical forests with monocultures.
Mahogany
Mahogany, identified for its elegant look with pink or reddish-brown hues, can also be sturdy and simple to work with. Conventional Honduran Mahogany, or Broad-Leaf Mahogany, which is the commonest kind of Mahogany utilized in furnishings, solely grows in tropical forests in Central and South America, and it has been pushed to the brink of extinction by unlawful logging of the Amazon and surrounding forests.
Moreover, there are over 70 species of mahogany native to Asia, with greater than 50% endangered or critically endangered, and 5 species of African Mahogany are both endangered or weak.
Wish to furnish your own home with out harming the planet? Discover our assortment of handcrafted, sustainably sourced hardwood furnishings—made proper right here in Vermont by expert artisans.
