The beauty and appeal of the wooden furniture you buy is reduced considerably if it’s come to Australia from an unsustainable production network in one of the countries where quick cash, not long term sustainability, is the priority.

Many poorer countries in Asia and the Pacific are exploiting their natural resources and destroying their environments in the process for a quick sell of rare woods like rosewood, ebony and mahogany in the western timber markets. So, how do you know if the teak table you are buying has been produced ethically; that is, without harming the environment or the people who depend on it?

The true price of illegal timber

It’s important to recognise the impacts of illegal logging. Prices for old, rare trees such as rosewood or teak are high and the temptation for many in the under-developed countries where many of these grow is to cut them down and sell them to overseas buyers. But illegal logging causes a loss of biodiversity, it funds crime because the activity itself is illegal, and it causes loss of taxes and revenue to governments. Illegal logging both competes for and removes resources from local communities that depend on the forests for their livelihood. It also means that legally obtained lumber increases in price to compete. But if you want environmentally and socially aware timber supplies you can look for the mark of the FSC.

FSC: Ethically produced timber

The Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) was established in California in 1990 and is now an international organisation that insists on well-managed forests as acceptable sources of timber. The impact on the environment and local people’s exploitation by the timber pirates are both taken into account. FSC began in Australia in 2006 and its logo can be found in many timber merchants as a sign of ethics and quality. Environmentally appropriate forest management ensures that the harvest of timber and non-timber products maintains the forest’s biodiversity, productivity and ecological processes. Socially beneficial forest management helps both local people and society at large to enjoy long term benefits and also provides strong incentives to local people to sustain the forest resources.

Greenpeace’s Good Wood

Greenpeace Australia Pacific has joined with some of Australia’s leading timber producers to start Good Wood, a stamp of quality applied to timber that comes from ethical and ecologically sustainable sources. When you choose Good Wood approved timber, you support a solution to deforestation and related climate change. You protect unique biodiversity and you help local forest communities find alternatives to poverty and loss of livelihood. Good Wood is timber grown in plantations or harvested from ‘well managed’ forests, or recycled, reused or salvaged wood. It enables consumers to continue using wood products without causing forest destruction.

An ethical timber checklist

• Ask if the timber you are buying is certified by one of the schemes that guarantees ethical production
• Don’t buy wood from Australian native old growth forest, ask for reclaimed timber instead
• Don’t buy uncertified plantation timber cleared from native forest after 1994
• Don’t buy uncertified tropical hardwoods, especially from Indonesia, PNG, Malaysia, Singapore, China or Vietnam

It takes a little time and extra effort to ask about the origins of timber supplies and you might have to be more than a little vigilant. Ask where the timber has come from and look to see if it bears the mark of the FSC or Good Wood, whether it’s Australian timber or imported – then you know that you’ll possess a thing of beauty that has solid ethical roots as well.