UNITED STATES-BRAZIL: Mahagony Caskets and Destruction in Amazon

By Haider Rizvi Reprint | | Print |

Haider Rizvi

WASHINGTON, Nov 12 1995 (IPS) - Demand for mahogany caskets for rich people in the United States who want to take some of their wealth to the grave is spurring the destruction of rainforests and indigenous people in Brazil, say activists who are trying to open a northern front in the tropical timber battle.

“The U.S. is the largest importer of Latin American mahogany,” according to Rainforest Action Network (RAN), a California-based environmental group currently campaigning against mahogany imports to the United States.

RAN activists say the high price the wood fetches in the U.S. market lures outlaw timber profiteers to log illegally on indigenous peoples’ land. “They harass, maim and murder those who dare stand in the way,” says Attosa Soltani, a RAN organiser.

Armed gangs of loggers killed 14 Tikuna Indians in Amazonas state in 1990. A few days after denouncing loggers’ operations in the region, rubber tapper Arnaldo Ferreira was killed in southern Para state in 1993, says Roberto Smeraldi of Friends of the Earth’s (FOE) Amazonia Programme.

A Nhambiquara Indian was killed in neighbouring Rondonia state in 1994. Loggers who wanted to harvest mahogany on Nhambiquara land were again considered the likely perpetrators, according to Smeraldi.

Environmentalists argue that most legally available mahogany has been harvested, pushing loggers into protected areas and territories that are supposed to be under indigenous control. Brazilian media have reported suspected links between loggers and killings of people belonging to eight different indigenous groups: the Korubu, Flecheiros, Tikuna, Awa-guaja, Zoro, Mura-Praha, Guapore, and Uru-Eu-Wau.

Mahogany is in danger of being cut into extinction in the Amazon, according to the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources in Brasilia. It continues to be logged at what the environmentalists describe at “an unsustainable rate.” RAN claims more than 130,000 mahogany trees are cut down every year in the region.

Representatives meeting under the auspices of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in Miami, Florida in November last year considered listing mahogany as an endangered species, though the step has yet to be taken.

Loggers have carved more than 5,000 kilometres of illegal roads through the Brazilian Amazon, destroying about 279 square metres of forest for every cut tree, according to RAN.

In an attempt to head off further killings of people and trees, activists shouting “Mahogany is murder” protested last month at the High Point Furniture Market in North Carolina, where hundreds of U.S. furniture dealers gathered. Black-clad RAN and Environmental Awareness Foundation protesters staged a mock funeral procession for indigenous victims of the growing U.S. mahogany market.

Traditionally used for fine furniture, mahogany is now increasingly in demand for last rites in the United States, where 80 percent of the 2.2 million people who die each year wind up in a box. An increasing number of wealthy citizens are buried in hand- made mahogany caskets that fetch as much as 10,000 dollars each.

Unsurprisingly, the lumber and coffin industries welcome the trend. “It’s a stable business,” George Lemke, executive director of the Coffin Builders Group told IPS.

When asked by ‘Mercury News’ why people prefer being buried in mahogany, David Beck, president of the Coffin Manufacturers Association responded with his own question: “Why does someone buy a Rolls Royce rather than a Yugo?”

Beck, who is also the president of the Coffin Manufacturers Association, says one billion dollars in coffins are sold in the United States each year.

The United States imported 48,648 cubic metres (CM) of mahogany in 1991 and 66,416 CM in 1992, declining thereafter to 48,740 CM in 1994, according to the U.S. Commerce Department.

Despite this reduction in the volume of mahogany imports, demand kept the value of imports high. U.S. mahogany imports, worth approximately 27 million dollars in 1991, kept at a steady value of about 32 million dollars for the years 1992 through 1994.

The import value of a cubic metre of mahogany in 1994 was 661 dollars.

Almost half of all Latin American mahogany is exported to the United States, where half of it is used for furniture and the rest is sold as lumber and coffins, according to RAN.

The top 10 U.S. importers, including the North Carolina-based industry leaders Nordisk of Greensboro and Dan K. Moore of Lexington, handle 80 percent of all mahogany imports. Other names include: Robinson Lumber, Tradelink, Thmpson Mahogany, Sitco, Newman, Aljoma, Craig and Caribbean.

RAN says customs records indicate that U.S. importers regularly buy mahogany from suppliers that Brazilian courts have convicted of illegal logging. Despite the convictions, these exporters don’t lose their export licenses, which gives them access to the U.S. market, says Mark Westlund, a RAN campaigner in San Francisco.

The furniture industry denies links to illegal logging. No logging company is involved in attacks on indigenous people, says Robert Waffle, a government affairs director of the Virginia-based International Wood Products Association. “I think there may be some independent people doing this.”

Given poor law enforcement and corruption prevalent in Brazil and Bolivia, there is just no way to ensure that a given mahogany shipment is legal and not stolen from Indian communities, argues RAN activist Atossa Soltani. To avoid these complications, Soltani says furniture companies should stop buying mahogany altogether.

“It’s stupid to say that mahogany imports should be banned, Waffle says. Activists don’t understand that indigenous people would like to raise their income through mahogany sales, he says.