Betterwood restricts wood imports from Brazil.

Brazil’s new President Jair Bolsonaro is pushing ahead with the destruction of the rainforest on a massive scale. The wood from the felled trees also ends up with European timber traders. It is declared as legal wood from a supposedly safe origin. In reality, however, the Brazilian government is promoting the rapid destruction of forest areas, the displacement of the indigenous population and the expansion of monocultural agricultural areas.

Agriculture instead of rainforest

Bolsonaro was inaugurated on January 1, 2019. On January 2, he disempowered the authority Funai (Fundação Nacional do Índio)which is responsible for the protection of indigenous people. The indigenous population is an important player in the protection of the rainforest. Many of the last intact areas of virgin forest are located in their habitat, as the population is resolutely opposed to overexploitation and the destruction of the forest.

Bolsonaro’s Foreign Minister Ernesto Araújo describes climate change as a Marxist invention. His family minister, Damares Alves, aims to convert the indigenous people to the evangelical faith. His Education Minister Ricardo Vélez Rodríguez wants to “cleanse” the education system of left-wing and environmental activists. And Bolsonaro himself is a friend of cattle farmers, loggers, mine operators and soybean farmers. The powerful Brazilian agricultural lobby was one of the biggest donors to his election campaign. Now – it seems – he is paying back.

44 percent of the Brazilian rainforest is protected. Almost half of it is still indigenous territory. These reserves are now to be opened up for cattle breeding, mining and agriculture. The consequences are global. According to the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz, the plants in the Amazon region store as much CO2 as mankind releases in just under ten years through its consumption of fossil fuels.

Only FSC® 100% wood from Brazil

In order not to support the state-sponsored destruction of the rainforest, BioMaderas imports BioMaderas and Betterwood will only import FSC® 100% certified wood and wood products from Brazil from companies that have been certified for years. Until now, such a self-imposed import restriction in our company only applied to Myanmar, the former Burma, which has been sidelined by massive human rights violations and the destruction of rainforests. Now one of the world’s largest democracies and the home of the largest rainforest area have put themselves on the same level in terms of environmental protection.

Our path in the timber trade

At Betterwood, we take a different a different wayOur aim is to use sustainably managed woodland to prevent it being displaced by agriculture. We give the intact forest a value so that it can continue to provide a livelihood for future generations. We rely on the strict and independent controls of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) but also on the credibility and transparency of the political institutions in the country of origin. Only when we are sure that working with a Brazilian supplier does not promote the further destruction of the forest can we include new wood from the country in our range again.