Toronto, Ontario, April 13, 2006--"Merbau is a beautiful, reddish brown tropical hardwood that makes gorgeous flooring," says Steve Maxwell, an editor at Canadian Home Workshop magazine writing in the Toronto Star. Then he adds a big 'but'....
But...almost all of it is stolen, he says, and with few exceptions, flooring makers are looking the other way. The solution: Don't buy merbau unless it has the green and white logo of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), a non-profit international group that verifies legal, responsible wood harvesting practices.
Maxwell cites a recent undercover investigation of logging in Papua Province, Indonesia by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and Telapak
(www.eia-international.org/campaigns/forests/news/).
The investigators found that merbau was especially likely to be taken illegally from protected forests, and that local officials were not trying to halt the timber thefts.
News reports say that the Indonesian government believes that 80 percent of all logging in the province is illegal, and the EIA/Telapak investigators say many flooring manufacturers, including some in North America, are buying the wood no-questions-asked.
The solution: At least one brand of merbau laminate, made by the European firm Kronopol, carries the FSC seal of approval. "Without FSC certification, it's virtually impossible for the average consumer to know where their wood products are coming from," Maxwell writes.
