Apr
About us, Decking, Environment, Products
TV program “Galileo” reports on Betterwood
From the rainforest in Peru to our warehouse in Germany: a film crew followed the journey of our wood and explained our sustainable business idea. Link to the program.
Our Managing Director Catherine Körting spent three days with the journalists in Peru. They saw the terrifying, barren patches of overexploitation where the jungle with all its biodiversity once stood. Together with our partners in the forestry sector, they also saw how a tree in the existing rainforest was cut down in accordance with the strict FSC criteria was selected and felled.
“This piece of rainforest is sustainably managed and only one tree is felled in this entire area. Every tree above a certain size has a number. This number indicates that this particular tree was felled on this particular hectare and that no further trees may be felled here. You have to wait until the forest has recovered,” she explained to the film team.
Poisonous snakes when felling trees
The forest and its biodiversity therefore remain intact despite management. As a result, the working conditions under which the trees are felled are much more difficult and dangerous than with conventional logging. The workers first have to cut their way through the jungle thicket with their machetes to reach the selected tree.
“In normal tropical logging, machines cut down one tree after another. Here, our people have to walk into the dense jungle. All teams always have this antidote to snake bites with them. After a bite, you have to administer it again and again until you get to the hospital,” says the head of the tree felling team.
Almost all of the trees from this area go to Germany. This is something special for the forest workers: “I find it interesting that people in Germany want this carefully felled wood. They couldn’t really care less what happens to the forest here. But they do care, I think that’s kind of great.”
The team accompanied the tree to the sawmill, where it was cut into planks planed into planks. All workers have health insurance and are paid more than usual – another criterion for receiving the FSC seal.
Larch splinters, Cumaru holds
Back in Germany, in our warehouse in Nümbrecht, we showed what the technical differences are between tropical wood and so-called domestic wood. For the TV report, we used a 1.5 kg iron ball on larch, on Douglas fir – and on Cumaru tropical wood tropical wood.
A clear dent can be seen on the larch wood and splinters and splinters are exposed around the dent. The impact of the ball can also be seen on the Douglas fir. And with the tropical wood Cumaru? The iron ball hits the wood from the same height, but nothing can be seen.
The reason: while our native woods tend to be softer and therefore lighter, the tropical climate, like a greenhouse, allows the trunks of tropical trees to grow extremely densely and massively. So heavy that they even sink in water.
Cumaru garden furniture
The report describes tropical wood for the garden as a kind of wonder wood. This is because the dense wood structure largely prevents moisture or mold from penetrating. We then compared two decking timbers that had been in use for six years. Siberian larch, a relatively popular wood in Germany that is relatively inexpensive. And the Cumaru from Peru.
“We have a clear fungal infestation in the larch here, clear cracks – this terrace will last perhaps another two years, then it will be rotten. With Cumaru, on the other hand, you still have a closed surface, there is no visible fungal infestation, this terrace will last at least another 25 years,” says Philip Jaeger, Managing Partner of Betterwood, summarizing the differences.
At the end of the report, our finished garden furniture made from stainless steel and our FSC-certified Cumaru from Peru, two garden benches and a garden table .