THE DILEMMA: To Use or Not To Use

Our planet is endangered by the lack of our respect towards the forest and its biodiversity. This is a very real threat: to see it, one just has to observe the pollution of rivers, the transformation of all forest into agricultural and pastor land, the disasters originated from the loss of forest, such as mudslide etc. It is definitely a dilemmatic situation for us, the world citizen. While some of us are irresponsibly using the forest as a mean to their economic goals, some of us are against any act that abuse forest existence. Yet, I believe that there should be an acceptable medium that can be developed based on mutual understanding and respect, with the same goal of proudly passing down our Forest to the next generation with minimal damage. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE FACTS --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Many of us, especially in the countries full of rainforest, have the abundance of forest products, among so many forest product, we have teakwood (Tectona Grandis). Indonesia is one of the world teak producers, and at the same time Indonesia is also loosing its teak forest rapidly. The primary use of teak harvested in Indonesia is in the production of outdoor teak furniture for export. Teak is used extensively in boat decks, as it is extremely durable and requires very little maintenance. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE RECOMMENDATION: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1) Use Plantation Teak instead of Forest Teak and study has indicated that Plantation teaks performs as good as old-growth teak in dimensional stability, erosion rate, warping, and surface checking, but is more susceptible to color change from UV exposure. Our responsible purchase teak with The Forest Stewardship Council certification ensures us that the teakwood was grown and harvested from teak plantation. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Promote the information to the teak product owner that any sanding and oiling will “shorten” the life of teak. Teak tends to wear in to the softer 'summer' growth bands first, forming a natural 'non-slip' surface. Any sanding is therefore only damaging. Use of modern cleaning compounds, oils or preservatives will shorten the life of the teak, as it contains natural teak-oil a very small distance below the white surface. Wooden boat experts will only wash the teak with salt water, and re-caulk when needed. This cleans the deck, and prevents it from drying out and the wood shrinking. The salt helps it absorb and retain moisture, and prevents any mildew and algal growth. People with poor knowledge often over-maintain the teak, and drastically shorten its life. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Develop awareness on how to treat teak products respectfully, how is that? Personally I think that if it takes 15 years to grow a tree before the three can be felled, one should strive to create a product that will last longer than 15 years. It is an insult to mother nature when we grow a tree for 15 years and fell the tree, use the tree to create a product that will only survive a few seasons. Outdoor furniture creation is definitely not a respectable way to use our teakwood. On the other hand, we can create various product that will last for more than 15 years or even for generations. One of the sweetest thing in my life is to hear my mother said to me at one time: “This cabinet was pass on to me by my grandmother, and it is made of teak, and I am passing it on to you…if only this cabinet can speak, it will tell you our family history”, and I call that respect. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE CONCLUSION: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Implementing the above recommendation will be a great solution for both ends. It is concerning that This year we reach another milestone in global population growth, 7 billion inhabitants of Earth. It has only taken us 12 years to add an additional 1 billion people to the planet. This kind of rapid population growth puts strains on environmental, political, and financial resources. We all should be aware that the nature capability to nurture a tree in not proportional to the consumption of the tree, we should use use tree and tree product* wisely. (Suliati Boentaran) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *) Tree product includes: paper, furniture, wood floor and anything originated from wood of forest and plantation.