1999 UPDATE
(Internet Version 1.01)Including the contents of the 1992 Good Wood Guide, with an information update, and results of the 1998 survey of timber suppliers and timber-related businesses.
Home - Summary- Contents - Forests - Deciding - Survey Results
Introduction
Here it is, the 1999 survey update Internet version. Due to the nature of the Interent we will now be able to update the Good Wood Guide more frequently. We hope you find it useful.
Since the 1992 edition of the good wood guide, the logging and burning of rainforests has continued at unprecedented rates. Thousands upon thousands of species have become extinct and many ecosystems have been irreversibly damaged. Fires burn. Climate change is under way.
The world rainforest movement has raised awareness about the plight of forests through the 1980’s and 1990’s. Publications such as the Good Wood Guide continue to provide a resource facilitating more ethical purchasing of timber products.
We can change our lifestyles and our timber-purchase habits so that we do not contribute to the catastrophe. If we encourage others to do likewise, then we can help the planet to heal. Our actions really do make a difference.
In A Nutshell - How to buy good wood
Don’t buy any kind of timber from any kind of natural forest
Not even from natural forests that are so-called ‘sustainably managed’, ‘renewable resource’ - or with any other label that the sales people might make up. For example:
Balau, beech (NZ native), eucalyptus species(Australian),
Fiji kauri, jarrah, kwila, rimu, western red cedar.
Apply the "reduce, re-use, recycle" concept.
Don’t buy what you don’t need; buy second hand stuff; beware of fake ‘recycled’ timber.
Choose timber from trees planted by people
Note that all these timbers only count as ‘good wood’ if grown in NZ, and/or with written evidence that they are from trees planted by humans eg. in a plantation.
Australian blackwood, chestnut, douglas fir, elm, eucalyptus species, larch, lawson cypress, macrocarpa, oak, poplar, radiata pine, redwood, spruce, sycamore, walnut, western red cedar.
Consider various construction materials
Using alternatives can save precious timber resources.
Consider ‘eco-timber’
From the Solomon Islands or Papua New Guinea. Greenpeace endorsed. Keeping forests and people alive and well.
Take time to make a decision that you will be happy with
Think about things carefully, make your own investigations, research your options.
Introduction
1999 UPDATE PART ONE:
How are the forests getting along?
Forests around the world
1999 UPDATE PART TWO:
Decision making1992 GOOD WOOD GUIDE:
A: Issues
B: Timber use
1999 UPDATE PART THREE :
Survey results
Home - Summary- Contents - Forests - Deciding - Survey Results
The Aotearoa/NZ Good Wood Guide, 3rd edition.
This web version of the Good Wood Guide will be updated as resources permit.
This Good Wood Guide is based on a concept which originated with Friends of the Earth UK, and is one of several produced around the world. The 1992 publication of the Aotearoa/New Zealand Good Wood Guide was funded by a grant from the Pacific Development and Conservation Trust.
Many thanks to all the people who helped with the survey and publication, including:
Abie Horrocks, Bera MacClement, Dean Baigent-Mercer, Eltahir Kabbar, Garrick Martin, Grant Rosoman, Ian Gallagher, Jen Coleman, Jo Mackay, Jo-Anne McNeice, Joe Buchanan, Katy Brown, Lynley, Nicholas Bollen, Nick Young, Nikki Jones, Ray Webster, Robin Archibald, Sam Buchanan, Sian Robinson, Stephen Blyth, Suzy Brow, and Toby Boramon.
ISBN 0-473-05696-8
Published by Friends of the Earth (NZ), Box 5599, Auckland; and Wellington Rainforest Action Group, Box 11964, Wellington.
