Global deforestation is a problem, sometimes removed from the sight but ever in the heart of mankind.

At LASN, we have begun research on this life-threatening situation of global deforestation. In our research, we have found a diverse information base and an equally diverse set of facts.

An interesting side note comes from Woodstove/Fireplace Magazine, in which we found that close to 50% of all meals cooked on the earth are done over a wood fire.

Our other sources include the Friends of the Earth and their British publication, “The Good Wood Guide,” the International Tropical Timber Agreement, the Environmental Systems Research Institute, the United Nations Conference on Desertification and the Rain Forest Alliance. We also talked with several suppliers of furniture and site amenities who use wood products from all parts of the globe. From these sources, we are compiling a series of articles focusing on the potential impact a landscape architect has on this situation.

In the following pages, you will find some of the basic facts as we were able to put them together. In addition, you will find several statements from suppliers who take a responsible approach in providing their wares.

While it would be preposterous to say that hardwood specification for landscape projects is the only factor contributing to the global deforestation, it is not outside the reach of landscape architecture to have a positive effect on the solution.

How Can a Landscape Architect Have an Impact?

Landscape Architects, specifiers, engineers and their clients specify and use wood products taken from deforested regions. Site amenities, bridges, playground equipment and furniture are just a few of the wood products specified daily.

Responsible specifications call for a knowledge of the source of wood products used. One recommendation is to contact the Friends of the Earth and obtain a copy of the “Good Wood Guide.” In this reference, you will find listings of various woods that are responsibly harvested from all parts of the earth. A brief perusal should set the foundation for your specifications.

There are several distinct areas where deforestation has, or could create a situation of “desertification” (the making of a desert): Africa, South America, Southeast Asia, North America, and Australia. Of these, North America, Australia, and to some extent Southeast Asia, have adopted stringent guidelines for reforesting areas of extraction. The others are facing worldwide pressure to adopt policies to limit and replace extracted timber.

Probably the most prevalent, and certainly the most publicized regions are the rain forests of Amazonia. While of major concern to world survival, the South American deforestation is a result of poor planning, economics, and politics. With the exception of mahogany, it is not the result of excessive timber deportation.

Remember, tropical deforestation is only a part of the overall global deforestation. Trees are either tropical (absorbing nutrients through the canopy) or temperate (gaining nutrients from the soil). Both sources provide a wide variety of usable hardwoods and both are equally susceptible to devastation.

North America has its own deforestation. Fortunately, our political and economic environment has created a situation where most of the wood products are harvested from crops with maturity cycles of less than 40 years.

Australia has concentrated a great deal of mental and physical effort to control the harvesting of its cash timber crops. The Australian Department of Overseas Trade in Canberra publishes an Australian Hardwood Buyers Guide. In the US and Canada, you can obtain more information about the Australian hardwood operations by contacting the Australian Trade Commissioners in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Montreal, Vancouver, and Toronto.

In Southeast Asia, teak is a major source of income to several countries. The following are excerpts from a letter to LASN from Bobbie Goldstein, Country Casuals, recapping her correspondence with the director of a major timber merchant in London:

“Mr. David Dick is director of Mallinson Turner Hunter Ltd., a highly respected British timber merchant based in London. I showed him several articles claiming that the production of teak garden furniture is helping to destroy the tropical rain forest. The following are direct quotations from his correspondence.

1. “Teak is not a product of the tropical rain forest. It is a deciduous tree, and grows in the drier, hilly monsoon areas of India, Burma and Java.
2. Teak plantations were first established in Java by Dutch colonists in the 1870’s and have been harvested on a planned 80-year cycle rotation basis regularly since they reached maturity about the middle of this century. Annual production totals about 800,000 m3 per year. All Java teak exports now come from sustained yield, well-managed forests.
3. Teak in Indonesia is confined almost exclusively to the Island of Java. In Java, the teak forests are controlled throughout the Island by the State Forestry Enterprise, Perum Perhutani. Java is a poor country by Western standards and among the most densely populated area of the world . . . Here is a third world country producing a tropical hardwood on a sustained yield, on a large scale, and nobody wants to know about it.
4. There are plantations in Burma but I believe that most of them are immature. When I was in Burma last year, I was told that they would be able to start harvesting them on a large scale in about 40 years time, when the yield would be considerably greater than the current yield from the natural forest. There is a “sameness” about plantation teak from Java – all grown under similar conditions on presumably similar soils and the color of resulting wood is remarkably consistent. In Burma teak there has far more variety of grain and colour, coming as it does from a variety of different terrain over a considerable area. It’s all Tectona grandis.”

Landscape architecture, in some instances, can be called the art of renewing life in developed lands. Landscape Architects must be aware of the source and the impact of the products going into their projects.

At LASN, we feel there is a need for responsible growth. Questions provide information . . . and information is the key. Remember, the goal is as simple as changing one little letter. What has become a global problem of de-forestation can be answered by the global solution of reforestation. Check your sources and stay tuned . . .