Significant progress had been made with the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation over the last decade, in moving the agency away from the use of old growth tropical hardwoods. But surely, the most significant progress has been made in the last few months.

As of a month ago, the Specification Office of the Parks Department, working with Rainforest Relief announced that tropical hardwoods would no longer be included in the specifications going out for new or renovated park benches.

Given that NYC Parks maintains tens of thousands of park benches and that since the '70s, ipê and other tropical woods have been the materials of choice for bench slats, this is not just significant but historic.

Rainforest Relief first discovered that Parks was using tropical hardwoods for boardwalks in 1994. We began a campaign, working with the local Sierra Club chapter and soon thereafter moved the main office to New York City.

Since then, we have conducted numerous protests targeting various city agencies and have met with representatives of NYC Parks on numerous occasions.

Since the beginning of the campaign, Rainforest Relief was calling on Parks and other agencies to shift to the use of recycled plastic lumber, the most environmentally preferable alternative for boardwalks, benches, bridges, ferry terminals and subway track ties. However, since the early '90s, Rainforest Relief supported the use of wood certified by the Forest Stewardship Council/b> (FSC). In the early '90s, certifications accredited by the FSC included working with small-scale wood cutters, an increased use of lesser-known species and a change in grading to accommodate greater use of the trees cut. However, in more recent times, certifications have ignored these benefits and focused on getting out high-value species. We have seen all too many times, certified operators focusing on high-value species and needing to go beyond their already-weak management plans to meet the demand. Certified operators are now conducting their operations much the same as non-certified. At this time Rainforest Relief does not support the cutting of wood from old growth rainforests, certified or not.

Thus, as this campaign has progressed, we have focused again on the use of recycled plastic lumber and, more recently, on the use of domestic hardwoods as an interim measure. Specifically, we have been educating Parks and other entities about black locust, a domestic species that has an especially high durability, even in young trees. Black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) is rated as extremely durable by the US Forest Products Laboratory and typically last for 70 years in ground contact without treatment. That's why black locust has been utilized for fence posts in the US for decades.

Because of its incredible and innate durability, black locust has been planted extensively in Europe and Asia, where it is used for fencing and other outdoor applications. Unfortunately, it has been all-but-forgotten in its native country for these uses.

Rainforest Relief introduced black locust and white oak, another wood that is rated as "very durable", to Parks for use in benches in 2004. Since then, we have promoted the use of this species in WIldwood and Ocean City, NJ and in other places. Last month, Wildwood announced that they will use black locust for boardwalk renovations beginning this year.

After years of work, New York City Department of Parks and Recreation recently announced that, as of last month, no new bid for park benches will include tropical hardwoods. This is hugely significant. Parks has stated that around 90,000 linear feet of tropical woods are specified for benches each year. This may comprise the single largest use of tropical woods by the city.

Also incredibly significant is the inclusion of this issue in the speech made by Mayor Michael Bloomberg in Bali, Indonesia during the international climate talks in December. This statement marks the first time that the head of the administration of New York City has acknowledged that the city's use of tropical hardwoods is a problem. This is, perhaps, the culmination of the 13-year campaign by Rainforest Relief.

This is the first major victory in a long campaign but much more needs to be done. The plan being developed by Office of Long-term Planning and Sustainability (OLPS) will address all tropical hardwoods used by city agencies and we will be meeting with OLPS staff whenever possible and closely watching progress on the plan. But as well, New York City Transit Authority, a division of the Metropolitan Transit Authority, which uses ekki logged from rainforests in West Africa or subway track crossties, is a state agency and thus may not be addressed by the city's plan. We will try to assure that it will but if not, we will have to then focus our attention on the MTA and on state level policy-makers.

Rainforest Relief needs your support to continue the ciritcal work of eliminating the demand for the products of rainforest destruction, like tropical hardwoods logged from old growth rainforests. Please consider making a donation today.


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Below is our press release highlighting these historic developments.

NYC Parks Department Ends the Use of Tropical Hardwoods for Benches
RECENT ACTIONS BY ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS BRING PROGRESS IN 13-YEAR CAMPAIGN

NEW YORK CITY — January 10, 2007. In a meeting with representatives of environmental groups Rainforest Relief and New York Climate Action Group, Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe unveiled a plan to phase out the use of hardwoods logged from the rainforests of the Amazon, which the agency uses for benches, boardwalks and the decking of bridges in the thousands of parks and areas overseen by the department. Celia Petersen, director of the Specifications Office of NYC Parks, stated that as of last month, Parks will no longer specify tropical hardwoods for benches.

The issue was recognized by Mayor Michael Bloomberg in his speech last month in Bali during the climate talks:

“New York, like many cities, uses tropical hardwoods — in our case, for our extensive beach boardwalks and also for the walkway on the world-famous Brooklyn Bridge… I've asked my Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability to work with the relevant City agencies, and present me, within the next 60 days, with a plan for reducing our reliance on such hardwoods.”


“This is an exciting announcement and the most progress we’ve seen on this issue in a decade,” said Tim Keating, Director of Rainforest Relief. “It’s been a long, long road to get to this point and we thank

Parks Commissioner Benepe and other Parks staff who have worked to find suitable alternatives to rainforest hardwoods. We call on other city and state agencies to end their use of these destructive woods as well.”

Rainforest Relief founded in New Jersey in 1989, began a campaign to eliminate the use of rainforest woods by the city in 1995 after recognizing tropical hardwoods at the Coney Island boardwalk in 1994. The group subsequently learned that the Parks department also used the wood for benches and bridge decking. The campaign has included high-profile actions, such as hanging a 125-foot-tall banner on the historic Parachute Jump in 1998, as well as dogging former Parks Commissioner Henry Stern with signs at public events.

Recently, a new grassroots organization, New York Climate Action Group, has joined the campaign to end the city’s use of tropical hardwoods because deforestation, mostly in the tropics, contributes an estimated 25 – 30% of human-caused greenhouse gases.

Logging for exported wood is the primary factor leading to tropical deforestation, as roads are first bulldozed by loggers, in their pursuit of high-value species for export. This allows access to farmers and others who then completely clear the decimated forests.

“People worldwide recognize with increasing urgency the need to address climate change. Economists and environmentalists agree that ending deforestation is a highly cost-effective means to do so. We hope that Mayor Bloomberg will institute a policy ending the use of all woods from old growth forests”, said JK Canepa, a founding member of NYCAG.

In November, Ecological Internet, founded by Dr. Glen Barry, sent an action alert about the issue to a mailing list of over 50,000. The alert generated approximately 200,000 protest emails from 68 countries to state and city staff and officials in the month prior to Mayor Bloomberg’s announcement. "Maintaining large and intact primary and old-growth forests free from industrial logging is a requirement to address climate change, biodiversity loss and to achieve global ecological sustainability," explains Dr. Barry. "Ancient rainforest logs belong in intact rainforest canopies and ecosystems, not NYC park benches and boardwalks.