We’re so spoiled. We like the texture and energy of wooden floors under our feet, the sheen of polished wooden tables, the clunk of a solid wooden door. Now that there’s not enough to go around, the more imaginative are stretching toward recycled or sustainable timber and alternative materials. But the vast majority of buyers internationally are still blissfully unaware that as far as limitless availability of wood is concerned, the party is nearly over.
Indonesia has the highest rate of deforestation in the world. Over 72% of its original forest cover has been lost in living memory, and forest areas the size of 300 soccer fields are cut down every hour for a total of 1.8 million hectares of lost forest each year. Floods, landslides and other deforestation-related natural disasters grow worse annually. And a very high percentage of commercial timber comes from national parks and other protected areas.
Awareness of Indonesia’s wood issues is finally trickling down to the end user here in Bali. Suddenly, recycled wood is hot. One of Bali’s most ethical traders is Sherri Dean of PT Brahma Gita in Benoa. After working at sea for 17 years, she and her husband came ashore in Bali in 2005 to settle with their growing family. They bought a 35 metre sailboat with a broken back and used its teak and ironwood timber to build their house. So many people were intrigued by the idea that they started a recycled wood business.
The timing was perfect. New wood was becoming a hot political issue and the prices were spiraling. Sherri and her husband began to source recycled teak and ironwood from old fishing boats and docks around the archipelago, and increasingly found that customers were standing in line for this beautifully seasoned timber. Decking and flooring is their specialty.
“At first people didn’t get what we were doing –- why would they opt for recycled wood with its holes and flaws that needed more cutting and finishing than new wood? But it’s so inspiring to see what a good designer or architect can do with it. They bring it back to life.” Most of Brahma Gita’s clients are restaurants, resorts and villas.
“We sailed thousands of kilometres around Indonesia for 12 years,” Sherri recalls. “We’d revisit an island which only a couple of years earlier had pristine bays and coral reefs only to find that it had been logged bare. The water was so muddy with runoff that nothing could live in it. We don’t deal with new wood at all,” she adds firmly. “Every order we get means fewer trees are being cut down.
“I’m so pleased to see the interest in recycled wood for the environment’s sake,” she continues. “Many of the projects we’re working on specify all recycled wood, or as much as possible, and some of them are quite prestigious. Hopefully this will be the tipping point, where people see the importance of making an ethical decision about the wood they use and realize that recycled wood is a viable option.”
Not long ago, old wood was cheap; prices have doubled or even tripled over the past two years. Naturally, there are a lot of sharks swimming around this lucrative new commodity. I spoke to a couple of people who were determined to go the ethical route and use recycled wood in their new houses. They’d fallen into the hands of dubious wood traders who took high deposits and then failed to deliver, or caused construction delays of a year or more.
In Ubud, Kadek Gunarta has been sourcing used teak from old houses and farms in Java for several years, using it in uniquely designed furniture, bales, and other projects. He’s also active in a reforestation project next to Ubud’s Monkey Forest. An expert on Balinese woods, he explains that the only sustainable options besides recycled timber are limited. “Treated bamboo, of course. Treated coconut wood and sugar palm wood are both strong but the boards are narrow and suitable mostly for rafters and trim. Treated and kiln-dried mango wood, though, can reach a width of 80 cm. Even albacia wood, if grown in dry conditions, is strong enough to build with.”
There’s more good news on the wood front. A number of independent reforestation projects are underway on Bali these days. Drh I Gede Nyoman Bayu Wirayudha, Director of the Friends of the National Parks Foundation, is managing a new initiative on the arid island of Nusa Penida which has only about 5% forest cover. With support from American Express and Bank Danamon’s Seed for Bali project, the Gibbon Foundation and the Humane Society International, he has established seedling nurseries and reforestation programs on the island. Each hectare of the project costs 12 million rupiah, which includes the cost of 400 young trees, a water catchment for them and monitoring/replanting for five years. “If you can water the seedlings through the first dry season about 80% will survive, even on Nusa Penida’s poor soil. By replanting lost trees for the first four years, we anticipate an 80 - 100% survival rate by the end of the project,” he asserts. “Eventually, we hope to have 800 trees per hectare.”
The project has two components. The first is agroforestry on private land, which provides cash crop trees like white teak, sandalwood and mahogany. The second is reforestation -- the planting of indigenous species which will also serve as a sanctuary for wildlife.
Dr Bayu’s project began in 2005 and will have planted a projected 52,000 trees by the end of this year. A separate project to plant bamboo on Nusa Penida sponsored by the John Hardy Group will see almost 5000 new stands of bamboo by the end of 2008. Several Bali hotels including Maya Ubud, Melia Benoa and Novotel Benoa offer opportunities for their guests to support the reforestation of Nusa Penida as a way of offsetting their own ‘carbon footprint’ and new sponsors are very welcome.
Rotary Bali Ubud is launching a reforestation project this year, and the Bupati of Tabanan recently won an award for a large bamboo reforestation project. So it’s not all chain saws out there. By supporting the people who are working for positive change and using ethical wood whenever possible, we can all be part of the solution.
For recycled wood, contact PT Brahma Gita at deanbali@indosat.net.id and Kadek Gunarta at dekgun@hotmail.com
To make a donation to the Nusa Penida Reforestation Project, please contact Dr Bayu at pkaler@dps.centrin.net.id
