Environment

Where the lumber comes from, and the permit process that governs how it is cut.

The mills used are held to the forestry management guidelines set by the Brazilian government and by IBAMA. Because lumber is contracted from a few selected mills rather than purchased on the open market, there is tighter control over where the logs are sourced and over the practices around them.

How the permit process works

Ipe and other tropical species originating in Brazil are harvested under IBAMA guidelines. IBAMA is the federal body over agriculture and forestry in Brazil, and one of its responsibilities is the management and environmental impact of logging. Timber companies submit project plans, and approved projects receive permits to log named species only in specified regions. Those projects state the species, the tree size and the total volume in the targeted area. Once a permit is issued, the company is authorised to take only what the permit approves, and a paper trail runs from forest to finished product to export for each company.

Selective cutting

Selective cutting concentrates the logs taken within a specified area. A management project of that kind might cover roughly 15 hectares of Ipe while the surrounding stand of forest remains.