American wood furniture is linked to global forest conservation

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

Over the past few decades, the organic food movement has made us wonder about where our food comes from. Now, the fundamental concerns expressed in that move 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 were discovered about the origins of our food.

Wood furniture in the United States often originates from illegal wood 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: clearcut) each year. Incredibly, a wooded 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 large tracts of rainforest are looted by huge foreign logging conglomerates. The wood is used for inexpensive furniture and flooring that is processed and assembled in Asia. Furniture is sometimes stained or finished in the US to be labeled “Made in America.”

Why should America’s wood furniture buyers worry about the destruction of the rainforest that occurs so far from our homes? In addition to robbing our planet of oxygen-generating trees and endangered wildlife habitats, the destruction of the rainforest removes forest resources that directly contribute to the livelihoods of more than 1 billion people in the developing world who they live in extreme poverty. What will become of these people once the rainforest disappears?

How to Find Sustainable Organic Wood Furniture

While supporting groups like the World Wide Fund for Nature that are working to protect the rainforest and its inhabitants, American consumers are looking for alternatives to bringing unsustainable furniture 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 sector, the move towards “buy local” and buying organic wood furniture is gaining traction.

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