This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 26th, 2008 at 2:17 pm and is filed under Eco-Friendly Furniture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
We are discussing the status of teak forests in Thailand since our furniture is made from recycled teak. Thankfully our wood is recycled and yet one day this too will run out. With the way things are going in Thailand it is absolutely critical that we remain fully focused on creating eco-friendly furniture. AdenWorks is committed to this and we want to protect our environment.So is Thailand really able to do something about its current teak forests since the logging ban 0f 1989? Overall the answer is really no. During one of my trips to Thailand I discussed this matter with a well respected businessman and he appeared less than enthused about the progress of protecting the formerly great teak forests of northern Thailand.
For Thailand’s great teak forests, the numbers tell the story. Natural teak forests in 1954 represented 2.3 million ha verses in 2000 where only 150,000 ha remain. This is a whopping decrease of 93%. Frankly nothing else has to be said about what has happened. During this time the private and public sectors have established only 836,000 ha of teak plantations. They are already using small logs from teak plantations for furniture, carving, building construction, household utensils, toys, poles and posts to name a few. Apart from genetic improvement, practically no research has been done regarding teak even though the species was the mainstay of the forestry sector for over hundred years. What they should have is registered sources of teak seeds and planting material for large-scale plantations and for smaller landowners. They also need adequate systematic research being conducted on quality planting material, increased productivity, and economic feasibility of teak plantations to support their expansion.
Currently there are no survey and no management plans that exist on teak plantations in the country. A database regarding these plantations is needed before harvesting could ever resume. The information would also assist in policy design, planning, marketing and expansion of plantation teak.
Sadly deforestation in Thailand is not declining and continues at unacceptable levels. Deforestation is occurring in the forest margin or agricultural frontier and also inside the larger forest areas. Extension of the rural road network, expansion of cash crops, population pressure in the areas affected by immigration and land allocation programs are the underlying reasons for the policy failure of forest conservation. Public policy has focused on rehabilitation of degraded areas and reintroducing trees to deforested marginal lands which is costly rather than preventing deforestation. Policies have not addressed the reality of rural poverty as a root cause of deforestation. Policies related to agriculture and other related sectors have not been honestly evaluated resulting in inconsistencies and policy conflicts which make Government’s efforts to curb deforestation ineffective.
Tomorrow we will discuss illegal logging and its devastating affects on the remaining teak forests.