Mahogany imports 'are wiping out Peru tribes'

[Judi Lynn]

Mahogany imports 'are wiping out Peru tribes'
By Andrew Buncombe in Washington
Published: 27 June 2006

They are the people who turned their back on the industrialised world, having decided long ago to live in isolation or else having never made direct contact with outsiders. But campaigners say that in the jungles of southern Peru, these so-called "uncontacted tribes" face an unprecedented threat from illegal loggers who are increasingly moving into remote areas in search of rare mahogany trees. They say the price of luxury furniture - mostly sold in the US - is a death sentence for these vulnerable people whose environment is being destroyed and who are being killed by disease and in clashes with loggers.

"Tens of thousands of tons of Peruvian mahogany are imported into the US for luxury dining room tables, household trimmings and automobile dashboards," Ari Hershowitz, of the Natural Resources Defence Council (NRDC), said. "But Americans have no idea that buying mahogany contributes to the destruction of the rainforest and threatens the people who live there. People are dying - it is a crisis right now."
(snip)

One of the Peruvian groups is the Native Federation of Madre de Dios, a coalition of indigenous communities, which has accused loggers of plundering "the territories of our indigenous brothers". Its spokesman, Julio Cusurichi, said the issue was partly one of racism. "In the last four years it has been getting worse," he said.

The US timber importers say trade in Peruvian timber is legal if the wood is accompanied with the documents provided by the country's government. The manager of one of the US companies, Bozovich Timber Products in Alabama, told the Mobile Register: "We can't figure out what (the NRDC) think they've got."
(snip/...)

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article1099169.ece

[ozymandius]

1. I will no loonger work in mahogany because of this.

98% of the mahogany imported in the U.S. was harvested illegally. Honduras has imposed a moratorium on the cutting and export of its mahogany due to decades of overharvesting. Cuban mahogany is almost non-existent anymore since World War 2 because of stupid cutting practices.

It is criminal in several ways what the desire for this wood, from this geographical region, is doing to indigenous peoples and to our planet's health.

[oasis]

2. The greed of the few again rears its ugly head. (n/t)