Brazilian teak hardwood floor.
Do you have Brazilian teakwood floors in your luxury home? How about Brazilian cherry cabinets? Any Brazilian mahogany items? Well, I certainly hope you are enjoying them. They might have come to you at a huge cost… well beyond what you paid for them. There is a good chance that that those exotic hardwoods were harvested by slave labor. Perhaps they were even harvested by child slave labor. But the cost for these materials goes even beyond its toll on slaves or your pocketbook. On average, your Brazilian teakwood floor eliminated 7.5 acres of irreplaceable Amazonian rain forest.
Brazilian cherry.
As a Minneapolis real estate agent, I can tell you that Brazilian hardwood floors make any house look great. You can’t argue with the fact that Brazilian Cherry (Jatobá), Brazilian Walnut (Ipé), Brazilian Teak (Cumaru), or Santos Mahogany (Cabreuva) products are both beautiful and durable. A nice Brazilian teak floor will make any house look like a million bucks. Brazilian cherry is open grained like oak, but it is twice as hard. Much of its beauty derives from the dark streaks that contrasts a background of dark orange and brown. The beauty deepens as the floor darkens within a few months of installation. Brazilian walnut is even harder. It ranges from a dark yellow to dark brown color and has fine graining that gives it a soft, silky look. It goes by many other names, including Rondonia and Amarelo.
To be fair, you might be unaware of how these materials are obtained. Most people are. Maybe those floors are made from reclaimed teak by an enlightened builder, or maybe these woods were already in your home when you purchased it from a previous owner. Perhaps your builder took the effort to determine that the wood was harvested from FSC-certified forestlands. And, lest I be labeled a self righteous, pompous hypocrite, I will admit that my lifestyle is not as green as it should be. I use more paper plates and foam coffee cups than I should, and I eat plenty of beef without determining the country of origin. It might be from Brazil, for all I know. Maybe I should do some detective work on some of the products found in my own home. This might be fodder for another blogger..
When you say “rain forest destruction,” among polite company you will get some yawns, a big ho-hum, and eyeballs glaze over. After all, this story is old news! Many of us can remember the 80’s when we heard Hollywood celebs, rock-stars, and even do-gooder hair salon product manufacturers pontificate about the deforestation of the Amazon. And besides, aren’t conservation organizations buying up the Amazon in order to save it? If we dare say the words “environmentally conscious,” we will be labeled as card-carrying Al Gore supporters or certifiable kooks and we might get skewered by the loudmouthed guys on AM radio.
Despite increased awareness of the importance of these forests, deforestation rates have not slowed.
Here are a few facts about the Amazonian rain forest that can bring us up-to-speed on the importance of the rain forest and the urgency of the problem:
- The rain forest is disappearing at an alarming rate. It once covered 14% of the earth’s surface. It now covers only 6%. Many experts believe that the rain forest will be virtually eliminated in less than 40 years. The rain forest is vanishing at a rate of 20,000 square miles per year. Although there is some dispute over exact numbers, each day about 80,000 acres of the rain forest are destroyed, and another 80,000 are degraded.
- More than 20% of the world’s oxygen is produced in the rain forest. The plants in the rain recycle carbon dioxide gas and convert it to oxygen.
- Over half of the world species of plants, insects and animals reside in the rain forest. As deforestation continues, many of these species become extinct. All of this is happening about the time we discover the medicinal potential of the rain forest. Twenty five percent of our pharmaceuticals are derived from rain forest products. Twenty five percent of anti-cancer drugs in use today are derived from rain forest plants. Vincristine, extracted from the rain forest plant, periwinkle, is one of the most powerful anticancer agents. It has profoundly increased the survival rate for acute childhood leukemia since it was discovered. Yet only 1% of the plants and trees in the rain forest have even been tested for medical purposes. We cannot even conceptualize the potential benefits of plant species found in the rain forest.
- There are other pressures on the Amazon basin besides the demand for hardwood. Charcoal used for the production of pig iron is one byproduct of vast deforestation projects. Slash and burn techniques remove trees to make way for cattle grazing. Sometimes government officials give away logging rights for as little as $2.00 per acre! Keep in mind that the damage is irreparable. Considering the extinction of species, severe loss of biodiversity, and extreme changes of habitat, the rainforest cannot re-create itself. The rain forest does not just “grow back”
- Considering the medicinal plants, plant oils, and abundance of fruits and nuts it provides, the economic value of these renewable products means that a wise use of the rainforest would yield far more value than if all of the trees were cut down for lumber harvest or cattle grazing. Today, the Amazon provides us with avocados, coconuts, figs, oranges, lemons, grapefruit, bananas, guavas, pineapples, mangos and tomatoes; vegetables including corn, potatoes, rice, winter squash, black pepper, cayenne, chocolate, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, sugar cane, tumeric, coffee and vanilla and nuts including Brazil nuts and cashews.
Had enough? The list of all of the benefits of the Amazon and the various threats to it that I discovered while researching this topic would be several pages long.
Sometimes we become inured to stories of environmental destruction. But will allegations of slavery in this industry gain our attention?
Recruiters prowl Amazonian bus stations looking for desperate individuals. These peasants are promised steady work, food, good pay, and free housing. But almost as soon as they reach the lumber camps, they find themselves deep in debt, and working at gunpoint, unable to escape. Stories abound about workers who demanded to be paid, and were simply shot for it. Larry Rother from the New York Times tells stories of people who worked involuntarily from 6:00 am to 11:00 pm without ever being paid. He also told a story about a man who worked in one of these camps for 11 years, until he was able to escape and gain his freedom. Others tell stories of being forced to take their brief food break while standing up, so as to not be encouraged to rest. Others tell stories of finding heaps of human bones in the forest. The work is dangerous, and all risk disease from the preponderance of chiggers and various biting insects. Medical care is virtually non-existent, and if medicines are provided, the workers find themselves deeply in dept to pay for it.
Some of this should not be so surprising. Brazil was one of the last countries to abloish slavery (1888) but slavery continued in various parts of the Amazon right through the last century. Estimates of people working as slaves or in slave-like conditions range from 25,000 to 50,000, although an accurate number is difficult to gauge. Slavery persists because of the extreme poverty in Brazil, and the fact that these camps are set up in very remote areas, away from the reach of the law. According to the law, slavery practices can bring you up to eight years in prison. The reality, however, is that most slaveholders, if caught, are assessed a $110 fine, which is viewed as the cost of doing business.
The Brazilian government believes that about 80% of Brazilian lumber comes from illegal sources. This timber comprises about 5% of all flooring and decking sold in the United States. Many American retailers also sell outdoor furniture from these endangered forests.
If you want to make sure the wood being used to build your comes from responsibly managed forestlands, you should make sure it is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). The FSC is the global standard-setter for responsible forest management. Forests that earn FSC certification must meet a set of environmental and social criteria covering biodiversity conservation, community relations, workers’ rights, indigenous peoples’ rights, and maintenance of high conservation value forests, among other things. If you want to find a distributor of teak from FSC-certified forestlands in the US, you can search the FSC database at this link:
43 comments ↓
I love this post. it addresses environmental issues and childhood slavery which is also a huge issue.
Kermit,
Thanks for this very informative post. I appreciate you alerting me to the subject. You really have a lot of detail in this post that will help those considering this type of hardwood floor for their home.
WOW! Thanks for letting me know about this. Great post. Going to Digg and stumble it right now. Might post about it on my site tomorrow.
Very nice article Kermit. We recently remodeled our Cary NC home - blasted the walls between the formal dining room, formal living room to open everything up.
As for the floors … bamboo. Super tough and with the very distinct knuckles, it gives it a slightly exotic look. Our floors are pretty light, but you can also get nice stains for bamboo as well.
If you choose some of the more responsible producers of bamboo, like Teragren.com - , I think you are getting on the fairly Green side.
Great article ! We should all look for alternatives to products that are made by child labor.
Forget about Blog Action Day. This is a post that was worth the wait, and should be shouted from the mountain tops - and Brazilian rain forests. Great job Kermit.
[…] Brazilian hardwood floors. Can you say “slave labor?” - a post by Kermit Johnson […]
Kermit, this is excellent. I will do a post in my own blog linking back to it, and I would like to distribute your info amongst our HBA chapter (1200 members, booming coastal constrution here) where my mate, The Perfect Man, site on the board or directors. May I?
Thanks for your kind words and visiting my blog!
As you said, it sounds as old news, but never so “new”.
I live in Italy and I mostly love ceramic or cotto floors.
They last longer than wood and you can wash them easily.
But I like wood of course and I agree with the indiscriminate deforestation.
Too bad the people who shout most are sons of the ones who made the deforestation in Europe and still do it in some way.
That is what I call “before shouting at others look at yourself2 and “if you want to change the world begin from you”.
I live in a country town (2500 people) and you would expect to find here a lot of trees and flowers and green.
You find mostly concrete and in the last decades the only thing they did was building, building and building.
Some places look more like “ghettoes” than building. Tens of people living in few square meters.
Because it is more convenient to build many small apartments than houses with gardens.
It is also more convenient for the city hall.
They avoid to build new sewers and concentrate all in a small place.
They like people with a lot of cars, because more cars mean more taxes and more profits for the Fiat and of course for the State.
The worst enemy of man is the man himself, or may be his stupidity.
If we want to have a lot of money to have a better life, isn’t it stupid to have a worse life to earn more money?
Patrizia
[…] Brazilian hardwood floors. Can you say “slave labor?” […]
Thanks for stopping by my site. I put a responce to your comments there. I will do a bit of research of my own and let you know what I think. I would like to know your sources if you have that handy.
Thanks again and nice site by the way
Brutus
Brutus..
Thanks for reading. You can find references by following the links (red letters.) You will find plenty of additional sources on the internet. Even the Brazilian government will acknowledge it. I have asked the Brazilian consular for updated information on this problem, and will post it when I receive it. The FRC is going to be one of your better sources. Also http://www.mongabay.com/external/slavery_in_brazil.htm
Here is an additional resource about the harvest of cherry wood in Brazil:
http://www.terramai.com/reads/brazil_slavery.html
Child slave labor is also used in Burma to harvest teak:
http://www.ratical.org/ratville/IPEIE/Burma.html
http://www.terramai.com/reads/brazil_slavery.html
[…] in new and renovated homes provide a further example of unsustainable choices. As detailed in the Minnesota Real Estate Blog, many people are choosing Brazilian hardwoods. These choices encourage the destruction of the […]
I have Brazilian cherry hardwood floors. I bought the house and they were already there. Now what?
Jeanie…
I certainly would not feel bad about it. You might as well enjoy them. You weren’t responsible for installing them. Brazilian cherry is gorgeous, so you might as well enjoy the natural beauty. It would be a shame not to enjoy them at this point.
Hi Kermit,
Thanks for an extremely thoughful post and about a subject I’m in total agreement with. Cutting vast swathes of a natural and vitally important resource for beef, mining and luxury floors needs to be reduced otherwsie we’ll lose the world’s greatest living sink of carbon dixoide and its medicine chest
Jim
Jim
Excellent article! The slave labor was enlightening and the devastation of the rain forest remains paramount for our future. Information breeds informed consumers - I hope!
Loretta Holscher
[…] Johnson, a Minneapolis Realtor, posts a belated Blog Action Day article regarding exotic hardwood flooring, and the slave labor that is prevalent in Brazil. A must read if how your flooring gets to you […]
Kermit,
Thank you for your comment and for bringing this to the blog world! I had not even thought about it. I, like you stated, could be doing a lot more ~ But every time we touch a subject it does have a ripple effect. Your photos are awesome! You have a new fan!
Dwana
Dwana,
Thanks. I have to admit that I purchased those photos from istock, and I wish I could take credit for them. It was cheaper to buy them than to fly to Brazil!
Keep up the good work on your site!
Hello!
You stopped by my Texas RV blog and left a message about this post. I have posted a link to this post from my environmental blog, EndangeredSpaces How Much Did the Hardwood Floors Really Cost?
Hey Kermit,
I did do a bit of digging of my own and found that you were right about the problem. The slavery and illegal cutting issue is rampent. I did a post on the subject and will be adding you to my blogroll soon.
Thanks
Brutus
Hi Kermit,
I think you have done a great job with this post and as per your comment left at my blog, i have added a link to your article.
Take care.
Good article, and like a previous commenter, very nice photos. I have been thinking of getting hardwoods in my home, and this gives me something to think about.
Great job, and I hope you post more with this quality.
Hi Again,
We featured your post on our blog, and sent it to hugg. Check it out:
http://ecolibris.blogspot.com/
http://www.hugg.com/node/4371
Take care,
Eylon
hi!
I tried to comment before but it seems there was a little access problem…
this article is great, very concise information about such a major problem …i’m working on a little illustration to link to this article in my blog, will let you know about it as soon as it’s done
once again…great job!
Thanks for alerting me to this thoughtful and well-researched post. It highlights how aware we all need to be about the various impacts of our consumption. It costs nothing but a small amount of our time to do some research ahead of time, and it is becoming ever more obvious just how important it is that we do so.
Thanks again!
I recently purchase jatoba from lumberliquidators and never know about where it truly came from- now I am very sad to know it came from the Rain-forrest. I feel selfish for my part of not learning the entire history of this wood.
Nice post, it seems anything from that far away isn’t the best idea. Of course the slave labor is really bad, but what about the energy used to get a pile of wood from there to here?
I wonder what people know about domestic hardwood floors? I selectively cut a couple of trees from our woods for trim and cabinets & feel fine about that.
We have white oak floors commercially purchased. The state logged some nearby land when we built our home - I didn’t like the look of that at all.
What would the best floor covering be in terms of the environmental/human costs?
BTW I am a Realtor - I’ve always liked old homes - seems an existing home, in terms of environmental costs is best.
as a hardwood flooring company owner, this is valuable information that we will keep on hand. when customers ask for this species of wood we’ll gladly show them this piece to ensure they are aware of how this wood is harvested. with a plethora of stain options on the market, certain “looks” can be achieved in a variety of ways.
Hi Kermit:
Great article. I was thinking of installing Brazilian Cherrywood floors in my home, but now I am going to look at some other options. Thanks for enlightening us about environmental issues and slavery. Thanks again for the great article.
Michelle Hanson
Please don’t paint Brazil and Brazilians as so inept and uncaring about the Amazon and their forest products as so wrong.
As Brazil fights illegal logging soundbiting the issue doesn’t help it. The biggest problem is the lumber buyers. Look to China for the biggest culprits globally, and those liquidation outfits and internet lumber brokers are no help. Why select Brazil only? How come nothing about the next wave - African hardwoods? Its going to be worse there if the world is not proactive.
Being educated about the real issues, like the basis of your comments above, helps. Thinking Green helps, exposing companies that Greenwash (unverifiable claims of being Green) helps too. Bamboo Flooring?! Ever verifiy what type of “green” glue holds it all together? I doubt it, and they’re not saying…
Want to help? Ask your builders and suppliers for proof of who made the product and where it came from - known as Chain of Custody. Environmentally and Socially Responsible companies anywhere on the planet shouldn’t be punished for their efforts to do the right thing.
I don’t think ignoring the global economy and keeping the third world poor impoverished is what you intend from the article. Just curious, is the estimated 25,000 to 50,000 estimated slave laborers in Brazil greater or less than the estimated illegal slave laborers imported into the USA each year? (About 17,500 to 50,000 slaves are brought into the United States each year, http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Global_Secrets_Lies/Global_Slave_Trade.htmlCIA http://www.alipac.us/article106.html).
The last paragraph is the heart of the issue, but you only give it a few closing sentences. Less alarmism and more education! Brazilian hardwoods are unique and have no equivalent domestically. Just make sure you get them from the right source. Think of the FSC as a Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. Welcome to the new economy.
Idiot,
I make it a point to only buy wood harvested by slaves, its much cheaper! Especially child labor. Their little hands don’t damage the wood. You and your green idiot freinds can all jump up my ass. YOUR CAUSE IS PHONY!!!! WOOD IS A RENEWABLE PRODUCT YOU DUMBASS!!!! ITS SALE KEEPS PEOPLE FROM STARVING!!!! MIND YOUR OWN F***KING BUSINESS!!!! WHAT I PUT IN MY HOME IS MY BUSINESS!!!!
PS DID I MENTION YOU ARE AN ASS?
Ebola…
Nice of you to drop by and share your well-articulated opinions.
Yes, wood is a renewable resource. Forestry people tell me that parts of these de-forested areas in Brazil might grow back in a few centuries. Maybe you have better information on that than they do.
In the meantime, you might want to consider adorning your home with elephant tusks and rhino horns. I also hear that you can also purchase a very nice ashtray made from a the severed hand of a gorilla. If you don’t mind doing business with slavers, poachers shouldn’t bother you much, either.
As long as you are enjoying your floors, it’s fine by me. You certainly are touchy about them.
ps. We could not jump up your ass if we wanted to. It seems to be occluded by your head.
pps. The “caps lock” button is right above the left shift key.
Why not just grow hemp in the rain forest and make Ebola a happy camper plus hemp is like bamboo (grows like grass and sometimes called grass) it grows back real fast and produces a nice cash crop. I wonder if it would make a floor material? Don’t have a chem degree to answer that one…
“If you want to save tropical rainforests, boycott tropical fruits and vegetables, and buy tropical woods instead, because then people will grow trees instead.” This is a quote from Dr. Pat Moore, Founding member of Greenpeace.
Travel Brazil and visit these wood product manufacturing plants and you will see that the actions of a very few should not reflect poorly on the majority of companies for whom establishing sustainable foresting practices is critical to the ongoing success of their companies.
Conscientious and intelligent companies do not invest millions in facilities and machinery only to deplete their resources and put themselves out of business. Equally, proper companies which many are, do not use child or slave labor. To condemn all for the actions of a few is similar to Hitler trying to put all jews to death because some kid named Hiram stole his girlfriend as a youth.
The vast majority of clear cutting in Brazil is done for the sake of growing crops or raising cattle for export to China. As you fly over the country, the only clear cut areas you see are for crops or livestock ranges whereas the areas where timber is being harvested are still densely populated with mature trees. Most loggers tag a number of specific trees in a hectare which after being harvested will promote the growth among the smaller surrounding trees.
It is hard to invison this without seeing it but consider your lawn as a forest of little trees, pull out one blade of grass per every one hundred blades in one area then till up another area to plant a garden and see which you believe is more detrimental. I’m not against farming, but doing so in the middle of a rainforest, the lungs of our earth, doesn’t seem to be a good idea. Selective cutting in many studies has actually proven to be beneficial for the health of the forest. Most people do the same thing at their homes every year but call it pruning.
As Dr. Moore suggests, put value on these trees by buying products made from them. Make it economically advantageous for companies to care for the rainforest, otherwise they are sure to disappear. If you want to solve the problem, kill the wolf, not the shepherd that watches over the flock.
Kevin,
Thanks for stopping by.
The quote you cited from Greenpeace is accurate. Greenpeace also believes that the majority of Brazilian timber is not harvested properly.
Selective cutting is a great idea, and I am all for it. As long as it can be FSC certified, I have no problem with it.
Tectona grandis is the Latin name for TEAK, a hardwood of the family Verbenaceae.
Tectona Grandis is indigenous to India, Burma, Thailand, Indochina and Java. It has been planted in plantations throughout South America from Panama to Brazil. Tectona grandis, is not a timber from tropical rain forests, and indeed, teak does not grow well in rain forests - it is a deciduous tree which grows best in dry, hilly terrain typical of the forests in Southeast Asia. Teak not being indigenous to Brazil is simply planted as a crop in plantations which is no different than clear cutting for the purpose of planting any other crop which destroys the genetic diversity that keeps the rainforest in balance. If Teak goes extinct in Brazil it is simply due to the fact that it is the wrong climate for the species. It is like trying to raise penguins in Bermuda, it’s just not a good idea.
One of the more controversial of FSC’s policies has been the ‘Mixed Sources’ policy, which allows manufactured products such as plywood, paper and furniture to be labeled as ‘FSC’ even though the amount of wood fibre from FSC-certified sources is actually as little as 10% of the total wood material in the product. With its ‘Controlled Wood Standard’, FSC has now opened its doors to almost any logging company wishing to launder its wood into FSC ‘Mixed Sources’ products, regardless of whether it is from illegal sources, stolen from indigenous lands, or cut from areas of forest being totally destroyed. Within the wood products industry FSC certification is simply considered a marketing tool which they pay a fee to the FSC for that makes their product seem green whether it is or not. The controls are simply not there. If you want FSC certification for your product, you simply have to pay for it.
A college of mine that is a botanist with a doctrine in biology who lives in Curitiba has spent the past 25 years monitoring the timber industry in Brazil. I believe if you were to come along on an expedition to the Amazon and actually see what it is you are talking about, you would gain a new and enlightened perspective on the issue. Brush up on your Portuguese and spend a month or so on the ground actually seeing the process and talking with the people at the plants. I have a number of friends in Brazil that I can get you in contact with if you truly wish to see.
The change that I truly believe would be most beneficial is if the variety of species offered from South America were equal and proportionate in their diversity to what exists in standing timber. Problems stem from loggers being given orders to fell only six different species rather than utilizing a much smaller percentage of perhaps a hundred different species that are equally well suited simply because they have not been marketed. You can travel many kilometers in the jungle passing dozens of other species before seeing one of the top six species that are recognizable to many here in the United States. Since fragmentation of wild forest can prevent regeneration, buy lesser common tropical woods which in many cases are even more beautiful than those which are more common. In other words don’t just eat the green M&M’s, the other colors are just as good. Through diversification you should be able to purchase and enjoy your tropical hardwood floor or furniture without worry of the green M&M’s going extinct. Have a good day
Kermit,
Interesting article, but I’d be a little cautious to check out all facts before making certain claims. Deforestation anywhere is both an ecological disaster waiting to happen, and the labor involved in performing the clearing can also have humanitarian and ethical implications. This is a worthy cause to have in people’s minds.
I would suggest that the industry start pushing bamboo for construction materials, its extremely fast in growing to maturity and is highly versatile in creating fiber board, fabrics, but the farming and cultivation still needs to be monitored for ethical management.
Thanks,
Robert
http://bambooyou.blogspot.com
Kermit
I am sure you have the best intentions in mind with your article. I am not an expert in Brazilian logging, slavery, or the valuable rain forests. I have no doubt that the rain forests are valuable! Given my lack of knowledge in these areas, I would like to critique just two points in your post. 1. you wrote that an average Brazilian Teak wood floor eliminates 7.5 acres of Amazonian rain forest. What is an average floor? A 15′ x 20′ floor = 300 square feet. The first log in that tree pic will yield more than 300 sq ft. 2. You wrote that Brazil was one of the last countries to abolish slavery in 1888. To put it in perspective, the United States abolished slavery in 1865, 23 years earlier. One hundred years later, Blacks still could not drink from the same water fountains as whites in the south!
Maybe we should put this article in perspective? I believe that a little more research from “other” sources is in order for you regarding some of the “facts” in this article.
Respectfully,
Zeke (caucasian)
I love my brazilian wood floors. I think i recieved a great price on them.
Well guess what folks? I’m gonna be just another DUMB, IGNORANT, LAZY, FAT American and I’m going to get me my dog gone Brazilian Hardwood Floors if I have to make those little kids cut it themselves, and install it in my house themselves! By God, I just have to have these floors!
hi there guys,/.
i am from brasil and i do install woodfloors here in usa
what you the situation of the amozonia is out of control and they are devasting everything.
they sell sell all the brasilian teak,cherry,jatoba etc for a very low price out there.
i think there’s no other way anymore.
i think that’s too late cuz nobody will stop the organizations to keep killing the forest.
there are so many ways but that’s easyer for them to slave people and kill the forest out there for money.
the governement closed the eyes already.
when we do install brasilian floors in our costumers we tell the story from these floors in how people get’s this material and they don’t believe in tHAT.
I HOPE THEY FIND A WAY FOR THAT.
THE AMOZONIA IS THE PARADISE!