American Wood Furniture is linked to global forest conservation

Have you ever thought about where your wooden furniture comes from?

In recent decades, the organic food movement has made us question where our food comes from. Now, the fundamental concerns expressed in that movement are being extrapolated to the furniture and flooring industries. People want to know where their furniture comes from, and what they discover is often more disturbing than the facts that have been discovered about the origins of our food.

Wooden furniture in America often comes from illegal timber from the rainforest

Up to 90% of furniture and hardwood floors sold in the US and Europe are imported from abroad. That equates to nearly 2 billion cubic feet of timber that is illegally logged (read: logging) each year. Unbelievably, a forested area three times the size of Vermont is being destroyed annually! Illegal logging is most serious for third world countries such as Brazil, Cameroon, Gabon, Liberia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Russia and Vietnam, where vast tracts of rainforest are plundered by huge foreign logging conglomerates. The wood is used for cheap furniture and flooring that is processed and assembled in Asia. Furniture is sometimes stained or finished in the USA to label it “American Made.”

Why should American buyers of wood furniture care about the destruction of the rainforest that occurs so far from our homes? In addition to robbing our planet of oxygen-producing trees and endangered wildlife habitats, rainforest destruction takes away forest resources that directly contribute to the livelihoods of more than a billion people in the developing world. who live in extreme poverty. What will become of these people once the rainforest is gone?

How to find sustainable organic wood furniture

While supporting groups like the World Wide Fund for Nature working to protect the rainforest and its inhabitants, American consumers are looking for alternatives to bringing unsustainable furnishings and “bad karma” into their homes. Buyers are eager to find furniture that originates in the US from US-grown wood that has been sustainably harvested from well-managed North American forests. As with the organic food constituency, the movement toward “buy local” and buying organic wood furniture is gaining steam.

Consumers can learn more about eco-friendly organic furniture and where to buy it from the Sustainable Furniture Council, SFC.