Is your wooden furniture illegal??

Around 1/3 of all wooden furniture are made from wood illegally logged around the world. Illegal logging is a major culprit for the increasing destruction of precious tropical forests and takes away a valuable source of income from local communities.

Indonesia is now the world’s third-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, mostly thanks to deforestation and degradation. The deforestation has huge impact on the local communities.For generations villagers have extracted and sold honey and nilam plant oil – used as cooking oil and to make cosmetics. But most have had to find a secondary source of income as resources run thin.

In addition to depleting resources for forest-dependent communities, deforestation is contributing to an increase in small-scale natural disasters. Flooding has become more common in the last five years, and the water level is rising leaving many houses damaged beyond repair. Furthermore, animals forced out of their natural habitat by deforestation are wreaking havoc in the village. Thousands of pigs are destroying the crops in the local villages.

In Europe The European Parliament has voted overwhelmingly in support of a new law to ban illegal timber imports to the EU. The Parliament voted 644-25 to prohibit the sale and import of illegally harvested timber and products made from it. The law is aimed at the large trade in natural forest timber from the developing world’s forest-rich countries. The ban is set to come into effect in two years. It must still be endorsed by the EU member governments but this is seen as a formality. Under the new rules, European importers of timber and wood products will have to prove the legality of their goods and provide tracking records back to origin.

There is only one way to stop the illegal logging, and that is to check next time you buy wooden furniture. If the legality of the wood cannot be accounted for then DON'T BUY!