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Selling rustic furniture is so much fun. As a dealer you get to tug at the adventurous heart in everybody. We all long to experience what our forefathers experienced as the wagon trains headed west. Selling AdenWorks’s rustic teak furniture allows your treasured customers to experience a part of the west through our western collection. We also have furniture for those who love the lodge look and even those that like to mix rustic with contemporary.We have recently been on a journey to determine how Thailand is doing protecting their forests so that sustainability of their forest will be a reality. Today we are going to be discussing what opportunities exist for Thailand. Below are the essential opportunities that must be realized to re-grow Thailand’s forests.
1. The potential of community forestry to help address poverty in rural communities
2. Expand exponentially commercial tree planting on marginal lands given Thailand’s competitive advantages
3. Enhance forest-based environmental services through payment mechanisms to forest managers and owners
4. Expand the production of non-timber forest products in high demand both in the domestic and export markets

By implementing these four suggestions Thailand can begin to positively address reforestation while still addressing the core issue of rural poverty. Obviously I am no expert on the subject. I am merely passing on what studies have shown to be the problem and solution to de-forestation of Thailand. It is easy as Americans to criticize Thailand for not addressing the uncontrolled harvesting of their once vast forests much earlier. Of course we and other western countries contributed to the destruction by feeding our uncontrolled appetites for teak and other woods at the expense of Thailand.

It seems to me that unless rural poverty is addressed first the people will continue to encroach into their remaining forests in an attempt to provide for their families. Most, if not all of us, would do the same if we found ourselves faced with the option of providing for our families or saving the forests. By addressing this need first plus beginning an aggressive re-planting strategy, Thailand can once again find itself with a healthy, vibrant forest. Of course it will not be easy but anything worth doing is never easy.

The wonderful people of Thailand deserve our help in making their economy vibrant which helps alleviate poverty which helps stop deforestation. By you helping to sell AdenWorks’ rustic furniture you to are contributing to the well being of the rural poor and at the same time helping to encourage the government and private sector of the need to address this challenging problem. We are confident in can be achieved. 
 

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.
 

We have been in the midst of a discussion as to the status of the teak forest of Thailand that once covered much of northern and eastern Thailand. One day the recycled teak that we use to construct our rustic furniture will be gone leaving us no source unless the teak forests of Thailand can rebound. So what are the prospects of these forests rebounding? In one word: poor. Let’s continue our investigation of what is currently going on in the great country of Thailand.An ever present danger in countries fighting to protect their forests from deforestation from Brazil to Indonesia to Thailand is illegal logging. The problem in Thailand is acute. Let’s discuss the problems in more detail based on a called “Achieving the ITO objective 2000 and sustainable forest management in Thailand”.

As we have mentioned in prior blogs, logging was banned in Thailand in 1989. A ban such as this does not work alone but needs supporting and complementary measures which frankly did not exist. Part of the problem manifested itself in illegal logging in neighboring countries. Although not perfectly executed however, the band has helped conservation efforts somewhat. The social impacts have also been mixed: improved environmental quality has brought about social benefits while employment and income in rural areas has declined.

The ban initially provoked a surge in illegal logging which has since been contained by tightening controls. The volume of confiscated timber is marginal but it is questionable whether the control is truly effective. Rather than large illegal logging operations’ going on the mode of illegal logging is small-scale activities often linked to timber buyers. Needless to say, these are much harder to find and stop. Wood traders have become sophisticated as the controls have improved. Under pricing, downgrading the product on official documents, and incorrect volume measurement are still going on and are extremely difficult to identify and control. Wood is extracted from the forest legally for household consumption only to end up in the market has also become a growing problem.

Authorities agree that corruption is a problem but its impact is so difficult to quantify. The central and local governments are involved in controlling illegal logging which is thought to have curved much of the illegal logging however it is very difficult to quantify.

Other effective controls have been media coverage, international concerns and export market requirements. However, more resources are still needed to strengthen mobile communication units for communicating illegal logging and for remote sensing monitors over the forest cover to monitor encroachment.

Tomorrow we will begin to summarize the conclusions of this study as it relates to the teak forests of Thailand.

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.

We are in the midst of a discussion regarding the status of the teak forest of Thailand. As you know AdenWorks furniture is handmade in Thailand. However, the primary wood source for the construction of our furniture comes from recycled wood obtained from old farm houses, farm implements, carts and so forth. One day this source, like so many of the teak forests of Thailand, will be no more.

We have chosen to focus on the teak forests because all responsible manufacturers and importers should be concerned about the forests of the world so let’s continue discussing Thailand’s teak forests. In 2001 the government divided the land between farm holding or agricultural land (41%), forest (31%) and unclassified land (28%). The total forest area in Thailand in 1961 was roughly 27 million ha representing 53.3% of the country. As a result of slash-and-burn policies, shifting cultivation, land resettlement, dam and road construction, the current forest area is estimated to be only 16.8 ha, or a 38% drop. Needless to say these are alarming numbers. Even with the band on logging, the deforestation of Thailand is going at a rate of 63,000 ha per year.

When reviewing Thai forestry, four stages can be clearly noted. First, was the early exploitation stage beginning from the mid-1890’s up through the middle 1930’s. The second stage was from the 1930’s up through early 1960’s which was considered the expanding exploitation and management stage. The third stage which covered the period from the 1960’s to the mid 1980’s was the forest exploitation decline stage. The fourth stage began in 1989 when the ban on logging was put into place and the struggle began towards sustainable management of the forests. To help make this happen, there have been three main interventions: (1) expansion of designated protected areas, (2) expansion of the forest resource base by plantations, and (3) development of community forestry. Unfortunately there is no real strategy toward sustainable management of the forests. Rather, there is only emphasis on patrolling, recreation and other services with little to no research being carried out.

More on the status of teak tomorrow.

These days environmental friendliness is on many peoples’ minds. People are devising ways to create environmentally friendly everything including eco-friendly furniture. From the very beginning we here at AdenWorks have been very conscious of our carbon footprint. Although the focus on green has developed more recently, we have been creating eco-friendly rustic furniture since AdenWorks began.
Obviously this is an extremely important aspect of our company. We strive to preserve the earth as best we can by not using new teak tress to build our furniture. Instead we design our furniture to be composed of old wagon wheels, old plow handles, old feeding troughs, parts of barns, and many more antique materials. Its fun to see how create you can be when designing a piece of furniture from a trough.

I wanted to fill you in on why our furniture is eco-friendly by telling you a little bit about the history of Thailand and teak forests. Yesterday’s blog appeared quite encouraging when it came to the lush forests, but by the end of the post we realized something was amiss. Let’s continue the story today:
Sadly, by 1993 the forest area for growing teak had been reduced to only 1,880,700. What happened in such a short few years? The causes include:
       • Hill tribe slash-and-burn activities
       • Illegal land clearing and encroachment for agriculture
       • Mining and construction of hydropower dams and reservoirs

Actually the real timber exploitation began in the mid 19th Century by foreign companies such as Borneo Company, Anglo-Thai Company and Bombay Burma Company. There were no regulations to control timber harvesting and control was left to local jurisdictions. A forest department was established in 1896 yet further exploitation was carried out using selective cutting based on the growth rates of each tree species and its marketable size limits.

In 1988 Thailand experienced a devastating flood whose impact was cataclysmic. The Thai people surmised that the cause was deforestation. As a result the government imposed an immediate band on logging in 1989. Log and lumber exports were banned in 1991. To give you an idea of its impact, wood production has declined from 1,820,000 m³ in 1983 to 65,000 m³ in 1993. In fact, Thailand imported 630,000 m³ in 1983, rising to 3,211,000 m³ in 1993. As you can see, Thailand has gone from being a net exporter to a net importer of wood due in large measure of exploitation practices begun in the mid 19th century up until 1991. This also coincided with a substantial population increase. In 1909 the population was just over 8 million people and as of 2000, the population expanded to just over 60 million people

It is clear to see that the teak forests of Thailand have sadly been reduced to a shadow of what they once were. So where does Thailand go from here. We will explore tomorrow the current status of Thailand’s teak forests. 

 For the next few posts I want to focus on the Eco-Friendly aspect of AdenWorks. The green movement is rapidly spreading which is extremely encouraging. Our company strives to preserve the environment by building furniture from recycled teak wood. Recently, I added an Eco-Friendly logo to our website. You can click on this logo and learn more on our beliefs about keeping our furniture environmentally friendly. So, for the next few blogs, I want to focus on teak woods past and future. 

Teak is considered to be one of the premier species of wood in the world. It has so many unique qualities such as its natural resistance to rotting and bug infestations. What you may not know is that teak is indigenous to only four countries: India, Burma (Myanmar), Lao PDR, and Thailand. Since our rustic, western and lodge furniture is constructed in Thailand, we thought we would take some time to address the condition of the teak forests of Thailand.

Before we get started, we want to remind you that our rustic, lodge, and western teak furniture is made predominately from recycled teakwood that was formerly used to construct everything from farm houses to farm implements. Another great thing about our rustic, western, lodge teak furniture is that it is constructed using teakwood that was harvested many years ago from natural aged teak forests rather than the lesser quality plantation grown teak. This makes our furniture dense and heirloom quality.
Since we are a conscientious eco-friendly manufacturer we thought you, whether a dealer, designer or commercial account, would like to get a brief historical overview of Thailand’s teak forests, their current condition and prospects for their future.

Thailand was once a country with lush teak forests found extensively in the north and stretches along the western border. For those of you who are more scientific, the entire range of forests extend from 14ºN to 20º31”N and west to east longitude 97º30É to 104º30”E at altitudes between 100-900 m above mean sea level. It was estimated that in 1954 teak along with other species in the mixed deciduous forest covered 9,297,300 ha of Thailand. It was estimated that approximately one-fourth of the forest land was teak bearing, representing roughly 2,324,300 ha. What determines the viability of growing teak and the speed of the growth are based on the following factors: rainfall/soil moisture, temperature, light, geographical formation and soil condition.

Environmentally speaking, everything was going quite well with such healthy forests winding through large portions of Thailand. Teak trees were flourishing to say the least. Unfortuantely though, the life of the forest took a turn for the worse. Tomorrow we will talk about what took place 15 years ago that greatly impacted the teak tree forests.