Dozens of Retailers are Selling Outdoor Furniture Logged from Endangered Forests




	Nyatoh outdoor furniture is becoming popular as a replacement for dwindling teak

Ending the Sale of Outdoor Furniture Made from Nyatoh, Balau, Kapur, Jatoba, Garapera, Shorea, Ipê, Teak and Other Woods from Endangered Forests

Rainforest Relief began campaigning on outdoor furniture in the mid-1990s, starting with municipal and institutional site furnishings. We did this by engaging towns, cities and educational institutions, attempting to persuade them to end their purchases of benches and other site furnishings made mostly from teak and ipê.

More recently, as teak supplies have begun to dwindle and teak has become more expensive, other woods have come into vogue as replacements. As well, we began to engage companies selling outdoor furniture to the home market. We began this phase of the campaign targeting those companies selling nyatoh, as we saw the popularity of this material rising quickly.

The demand for teak, mahogany, nyatoh, balau, kapur, keruing, jatoba, ipê, garapera, western red cedar, jarrah, cypress, redwood and other woods is driving the destruction of endangered rainforests in
Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Brazil and the dwindling old growth temperate forests of Australia, Canada and the United States.

Rainforest Relief has begun to engage a number of retailers about their sales of furniture made from nyatoh. These entities include Wal-mart, Target, Restoration Hardware, Pottery Barn, Cost Plus World Market, Vons (Safeway) and others.

Nyatoh, balau, kapur and other woods are being logged from rainforests mostly in Indonesia but also in Malaysia, Cambodia and Vietnam. Logging in Indonesia is a nightmare of illegality, unsustainability and conflicts with indigenous peoples. In Malaysia indigenous people such as the Penan are being displaced by loggers. A recent study showed that much of the wood exported from Vietnam was being illegally logged in Cambodia.

Jatoba, garapera and ipê are coming from the Amazon rainforests of Brazil, where 80% of logging is being done illegally and loggers even employ slave labor. Loggers are bulldozing new roads into pristine rainforests, thus paving the way for their total destruction.

Jarrah is being logged from old growth temperate forests in Australia. Western red cedar is logged from old growth temperate rainforests of Canada and the United States. Cypress is logged from old growth sub-tropical forests of the southern United States.

Do not buy outdoor furniture made from nyatoh or other woods from endangered forests such as teak, mahogany, balau, kapur, keruing, jatoba, ipê, purpleheart, jarrah and others. For more information, see Outdoor Furniture in the What to Avoid/What to Choose section of our website.

Send a message to Wal-mart, Sears, K-mart, Target, Pottery Barn, Cost Plus and Vons. Tell them it’s time to join with other forward-thinking companies like Ikea, Improvements and others and cease selling furniture and any other products made with wood from endangered forests.

Already Crate & Barrel, Restoration Hardware, Linens-n-Things and Improvements.com have announced that they will no longer carry nyatoh furniture and they are working with organizations to find more environmentally sound alternatives.

Join our campaign to compel these companies to end their sales of wood from endangered forests. Email us today.

We need your support! Help Rainforest Relief continue to sway US companies to end their complicity in the destruction of the world's last remaining rainforests.