I am pleased to have attention drawn to Tropical Hardwoods.
The United Nations (CITES) The Convention On The International Trade Of Endangered Species regulates what species are considered rare or endangered.
For those of you unfamiliar with the LACEY ACT, the U.S. Government implemented a federal law making it a federal crime to trade in illegally harvested wood products. Punishable by $500,000 fines and 5 years in prison with no corporate veil of protection. This law has more teeth than the FSC.
I would also suggest you google rainforests mongabay and take a look at deforestation graphs.
You will note that logging legal and illegal combined account for less than 3% of tropical deforestation rates. You will also note that deforestation is at its lowest rate over the last two decades and continuing to decline while wood usage has increased.
Species like ipe find their value in exterior applications for which their durability is proven. This is a very small segment of the wood markets compared with flooring, plywood production and other wood products for which these extremely dense species are not well suited.
I understand that this is an emotional issue, but designers have the responsibility to separate perception from the scientific data available.
If we are not to use wood, what are we to replace wood with, and is that product more or less environmentally benign?
This is a discussion worth having within the design community.
