This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008 at 1:52 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.
Selling AdenWorks’ rustic furniture is fun and rewarding. Why? You can be totally confident that you are offering them some of the best quality rustic furniture in the market at fair prices. Knowing that the majority of the teak used to construct our furniture is recycled only further encourages our dealers to push our furniture to the forefront knowing that its ecological impact is minimal. That makes all of us feel great about what we are doing. Finally, it sells and helps our dealers’ bottom lines and that is always a good thing!
The conclusion of the report “Achieving the ITTO Objective 2000 and Sustainable Forest Management in Thailand” recognizes that many gaps and weaknesses in the current situation do exist but it is not a gloomy picture for the country if corrective measures are taken. Thailand has accumulated a wealth of knowledge and there are well-trained professionals who can help achieve develop a sustainable forest management system in Thailand.
Below are major issues that need to happen to move Thailand in the right direction.
1. Net deforestation must be arrested
2. Degraded areas need to be rehabilitated
3. Poverty amongst rural people must be addressed
4. Community forests must be established in greater numbers
5. Industrial wood must be obtained from plantations and be less dependent on rubber wood
6. Wood based industries need to play an active role is securing raw material
7. All timber harvesting be verifiably legal and certifiable
8. Obtain resources outside of the country should be substantially increased
9. Decision making be made on accurate and thorough information
10. Bamboo and rattan being brought under systematic management and focus on sustainability
11. Protected forest be better managed to improve the livelihoods of the people living in and around them.
12. Decision making based on adequate information
13. Forest communities and forest owners effectively organized
14. Civil society well educated and organized on forestry
15. Private sector promoting common interests.
So what is holding Thailand back from making progress in these areas noted above?
1. Bottlenecks inherent in regulatory framework
2. Lack of coherence between public policies
3. Difference in philosophy and view of how Thailand’s forests should be managed and preserved
4. Lack of coherent support to communities and the private sector to manage forest resources
5. Inadequate information and systems to obtain the information
6. Lack of systematic strategies for human development
Tomorrow we will address the opportunities that exist for Thailand to develop and carry out a sustainable management philosophy over its forests so that future generations can reap the benefits.