Georgetown, SC Approves Use of Ipê for Harborwalk
Wooden walkway with buildings on one side and boats on the other
Renovations to the famous Harborwalk in Georgetown will destroy hundreds of acres of rainforests.
Georgetown, SC City Council is moving forward to use 40,000 board feet of ipê logged from Amazon rainforests.
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Pacific Green Becomes Rainforest Safe™ Certified
The interior of a room with wooden floor and walls and furniture, the Pacific Green logo in the corner of the image
Pacific Green’s showroom in Fiji. The company has been certified as Rainforest Safe™ for their utilization of salvaged coconut palm hardwood for their products
Rainforest Relief has certified Pacific Green, Inc., a manufacturer of furniture, flooring and millwork from salvaged coconut palm hardwood, as Rainforest Safe™. Pacific Green is the first large company we have certified.
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Volunteer Web Designer Sought
An image clip of the RR website
Rainforest Relief

is seeking volunteers to help redesign and produce our new website.
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RR Members Hang Banner at CIty Hall
Yellow banner with text, ”If Bloomberg is So Green, Why is NYC America’s #1 Consumer of Rainforest Wood?“, hung between two flagpoles, with men attached to the flagpoles on each side, and trees and buildings in the background.
A view of the banner with One Police Plaza in the background.
In honor of Earth Day, members of Rainforest Relief hung a 150-square-foot banner on the flagpoles at the southern entrance to City Hall Park to protest NYC’s continuing use of tropical rainforest hardwoods. See our campaign website, rfny.net for more.
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San Francisco Violates Their Own Law
Wooden decking along a sidewalk
The “Pop-up Park” being built with massaranduba decking logged from the rainforests of the Amazon
San Francisco has violated their own 1990 law barring the use of tropical hardwoods by using them as decking for a “Pop-up Park”. The same company promoting the decked park, Bison, has also sited a deck park in New York City.
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RR Releases Response to Mayor’s Tropical Hardwood Reduction Plan
For the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day, Rainforest Relief released a draft of our response to New York City’s Tropical Hardwood Reduction Plan.









The response, entitled, “The Rainforests of New York: a Trail of Destruction“ shows that in every case where a city agency or public benefit corporation is using tropical hardwoods — even for large-scale outdoor infrastructure — an alternative material could be substituted immediately. Thus, Rainforest Relief’s plan would end the City’s use of tropical hardwoods in two years, rather than 20.
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‘Polar Bears’ Denounce NYC’s Rainforest Wood Use
Banner reading “Save Polar Bears from Climate Change – NYC Stop Using Rainforest Wood – rfny.net" held by four people, wearing polar bear caps, standing in the shallow surf, with a police boat in the background
The real polar bear plunge — polar bear numbers are falling due in part to melting pack ice, as the arctic warms due to climate change.
Rainforest Relief and NYCAG activists joined the Polar Bear plunge in Coney Island to address the connection between NYC’s use of rainforest wood, deforestation and climate change.
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Funeral Procession in Washington Square Park with Reverend Billy
The Reverend Billy preaching fire at our action in Washington Square Park to mourn the lost animals and plants in the rainforests logged for NYC’s park benches and other tropical hardwood uses
Rainforest Relief, New York Climate Action Group, Reverend Billy and assorted rainforest wildlife mourned the installation of more rainforest wood benches in Washington Square Park.



See RainforestsofNewYork.net for more photos from the action.
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Rainforest Relief and NYCAG Target FSC Lies in High Line Protest
Activists with Rainforest Relief and New York Climate Action Group unfurled a banner on the High Line targeting the use of FSC-certified wood logged from old growth Amazon forests for the benches, bleachers and decking of the High Line.
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Friends of the High Line Meets with Rainforest Relief and New York Climate Action Group
The words “High Line” in grey, seraphed text, all-caps, with an “H” to the right
Staff of Friends of the High Line met with representatives of Rainforest Relief and NYCAG to discuss alternatives to old growth tropical hardwoods for Phase 2 of the High Line.
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Friends of The High Line — Enemies of the Rainforest
High-profile high crimes — the High Line's chaise lounges — made of ipê logged from primary Amazon rainforests
Friends of the Highline are destroying hundreds of acres of rainforest by using ipê, logged from the Amazon rainforest, for bleacher seating, decking, chaise lounges and hundreds of benches in New York City’s newest high-profile park.
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Friends of The High Line Claim Their Ipê is “Certified”
The Friends of The High Line specified a large amount of wood logged from Amazon rainforests for decking, bleachers, chaise lounges and benches
In an article on their website, Friends of the High Line has claimed that the ipê used for the new park is from certified logging. Even so, rainforests are still being destroyed.
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Rainforest Relief and NYCAG Produce New York City Campaign Website
Header from RainforestsofNewYork.net website
Rainforest Relief and New York Climate Action Group have produced a campaign website, RainforestsofNewYork.net, to target New York City’s use of tropical hardwoods.
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Target Ends Sales of Nyatoh but Continues Selling Balau and "Shorea"
One piece from Target's Lakewood outdoor furniture collection, made from balau
Target continues to sell outdoor furniture made from balau and other woods logged from the old growth rainforests of Indonesia and Southeast Asia.
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NYC DOT Out to Bid for Massive Amount of Rainforest Wood for Ferry Terminals
Aerial image of ferry terminal with red numbers corresponding to fenders, with a photograph to the right of a single fender
Just one fender of the St. George's Ferry Terminal is comprised of over 1000 pilings — all greenheart ripped from the rainforests of Guyana
The New York City Department of Transportation is set to destroy thousands of acres of the pristine rainforests of Guyana for new pilings and fendering at the Staten Island Ferry Terminals.
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"Materials for a New City: Alternatives to Tropical Hardwoods for Public Outdoor Infrastructure" is a Huge Success
Rainforest Relief and New York Climate Action Group produced a seminar to highlight alternatives to tropical hardwoods for public outdoor infrastructure.
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NYC Parks Uses Recycled Plastic, but also Tropical Hardwoods on Concrete at The Pier and Coney Island Boardwalk
Two photos: on the left is a woman, dressed in a red jacket, walking on a pier, with boards in the foreground and chain-link fencing on the left; to the right is a close-up of wooden planks with a yellow-orange tone
Parks has shifted to recycled plastic lumber for decking on The Pier but is still using cumaru for decking of the Boardwalk
New York City Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) has begun the shift to recycled plastic lumber by using the material for renovations to the decking of The Pier on Coney Island. Yet, DPR continues to replace sections of the Boardwalk with most-likely-illegally-harvested tropical hardwoods.
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Sanitation's North Shore Marine Transfer Station Bid Addendum Specifies Illegal Wood
Photo of drawing depicting wooden pilings
The North Shore Marine Transfer Station bid calls for a large amount of greenheart, logged from the primary rainforests of Guyana, for pilings and fendering
The bid for the New York City Department of Sanitation's North Shore Marine Transfer Station includes a large amount of greenheart that will be ripped from the primary rainforests of Guyana, but also apitong, the use of which is illegal for New York City and State agencies.
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Sears Holdings Still Destroying Rainforests for Outdoor Furniture
Outdoor bench
Kapur outdoor furniture still being sold by Sears
Sears and Land's End, both owned by Sears Holdings is selling outdoor furniture made from wood logged from old-growth rainforests and likely from illegal logging.
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60 Minutes Airs Report on ChevronTexaco Lawsuit
CBS 60 Minutes ran a story on the continuing lawsuit filed by the affected people in the Ecuadorian Amazon against ChevronTexaco that may be decided soon.
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Walmart Ends Sales of Nyatoh Outdoor Furniture!
A dining set of furniture on a patio.
Walmart has switched all wooden outdoor furniture on Walmart.com to FSC-certified plantation eucalyptus
Walmart.com has ended the sales of outdoor furniture made of nyatoh and switched to certified plantation eucalyptus.
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Wildwood Nails Down Four Blocks of Rainforest Wood — Media in March
Bundles of dark-colored wood behind a fence, among construcion debris; the wood has stenciled words on the sides of bundles.
The ipê used by Wildwood was shipped from Brazil and came into the US through Mobile, AL.
After a 2-year campaign, Wildwood, NJ has gone ahead with the use of ipê stolen from the Amazon rainforests for four blocks of boardwalk repairs.
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Associated Press Publishes Article on Rainforest Relief's Wildwood, NJ Campaign
A small boat on a beach, the word "Wildwood" on its side, with a lifeguard on a stand next to the boat and people walking on the beach
Rainforest Relief has worked for two years to convince Wildwood, NJ to not use rainforest wood for its latest round of boardwalk repairs.
The >b?Associated Press has published another article about our campaign in Wildwood, NJ.
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Flooding and Fish Kill in Sarawak Caused by Logging
Dead fish among pieces of wood floating in silted water
The recent massive fish-kill in Sarawak was caused by excessive logging of rainforests. Photo courtesy Bruno Manser Fonds
The Environment Minister of Malaysia has attributed the massive fish die-off in Sarawak to over-logging, blaming large companies for skirting environmental regulations.
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Conventional Banana Article
The words "The Huffington Post" in all-caps
Johann Hari, columnist for the London Independent, has posted an article, Why Bananas Are a Parable For Our Times, on HuffingtonPost.com.
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Rainforest Safe™ Certification and Pledge
Companies and individuals can stop their participation in the destruction of rainforests for wood products by working with Rainforest Relief and taking our pledge to become Rainforest Safe™.
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Mayor Bloomberg Announces Tropical Hardwood “Reduction“ Plan, but the Plan Will Triple the City’s Destruction of Rainforests
Man speaking in front of a number of other people, with one man holding a tape recorder up to the speaker, all standing on a wooden walkway, with city buildings in the background.
Tim Doody of Rainforest Relief (left) speaks to those attending our recent Rainforests of New York tour. Photo © by Tim Keating/Rainforest Relief.
New York City’s Plan to address the use of tropical hardwoods actually allows for a doubling of use by city agencies in the near term.
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Kitchen + Bath Business Publishes Article about Avoiding the Use of Rainforest Woods

Magazine cover depicting a photograph of a kitchen with a wood floor and black chairs and table to the left, with the letters "K+BB" in the upper left corner of the image.
An article by Rainforest Relief has been published in the December 'green' issue of Kitchen + Bath Business magazine.
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Metro Homes Uses Tropical Woods Ripped from Rainforests for Flooring and Paneling in Trump Plaza Jersey City
Logo with words "Metro Homes, LLC." and below "A Real Estate Company" with a circle behind the word "Metro"
Metro Homes, after stating that they had no knowledge of using tropical hardwoods, went forward with Macassar ebony paneling in the lobby and "Brazilian cherry" flooring throughout Trump Plaza Jersey City.
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NYC Parks Department Ends the Use of Tropical Hardwoods for Benches
Bench with brown, 2" x 3" slats and black steel frames, with a concrete chess/checkers table between them
Parks began using some recycled plastic lumber in 1998, after Rainforest Relief met with Parks Commissioner Henry Stern but has continued to use mostly tropical hardwoods until December of 2007
Years of campaign work by Rainforest Relief and more recently New York Climate Action Group have resulted in a major victory in New York City.
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Benpa Yapi Agrees to Not Sell Tropical Plywood
Respoinding to the Rainforest Relief campaign, Benpa Yapi Malzemeleri Dis Tic, Ltd., a plywood manufacturer in Turkey, has announced that they have not and will not source tropical hardwood.
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Jeremy Paster, 1971 – 2007
Man with beard to right in front of ocean and lawn
Jeremy Paster, activist and friend of Rainforest Relief is remembered.
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Wall Street Journal Article Exposes Major Failure of FSC Certification
Aerial view of a road through a rainforest showing logs stacked alongside the road
An illegal road cut into the rainforests of Brazil by a logger in Peru that was certified by an FSC accredited certifier. More photos are available here.
An article in the Wall Street Journal has exposed a major failure of the FSC to protect old growth forests.
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Ocean City Update 3
Yet another citizen protest prior to a City Council meeting in Ocean City
Ocean City Council votes to use ipê for boardwalk renovations, then reverses itself — but the ipê is on the way.
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Hoyt Street Uses Destructively Harvested Tropical Wood in "Green" Buildings
The interior of an apartment, with a view of the kitchen and part of the living room, with furniture.
Hoyt Street Properties' The Encore, touted as a 'green' building, is using wood logged from the rainforests of West Africa.
Hoyt Street Properties is touting their buildings as 'green' but are using wood logged from the old growth rainforests of the Amazon and Africa.
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Brazilian Police Dismantle Gang that Smuggled Rosewood to U.S.
Long thin piece and blanks for the bank and neck of a guitar, made of a dark reddish wood with dark grain lines
Brazilian rosewood is used often by luthiers fashioning guitars. Some consider it the "holy grail" of guitar woods.
Brazilia police, along with the US Fish and Wildlife Service, uncovered a group of smugglers shipping illegally logged Brazilian rosewood to the US.
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Pottery Barn Seeking Nyatoh Alternative
Man in orangutan costume holding a sign that reads: "Pottery Barn: Please Hurry, We Need Our Forest Home!" and a photo of a baby orangutan, standing in front of a Pottery Barn store.
Orangutans and their families are dying and being driven from their forests homes by loggers who are in part feeding the demand for nyatoh outdoor furniture created by Pottery Barn and other companies.
Rainforest Relief cancelled scheduled demonstrations at Pottery Barn stores after representatives of Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn's parent company told us that they are seeking alternatives to nyatoh outdoor furniture.
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UN FAO Workshop
Sparse trees and grass
Deforestation in Brazil (photo from UNFAO website)
A recent UN FAO workshop focused on the contribution of deforestation to global warming.
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Crate & Barrel Takes a Big Step Forward: Catalog Now Features FSC-Certified Eucalyptus Instead of Nyatoh
Wooden bar chair and bar
Crate & Barrel has shifted their sales of nyatoh to FSC-certified plantation eucalyptus. They should be applauded for this but they also should cease the sales of uncertified teak and mahogany.
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National Geographic Magazine: Last of the Amazon
Four Indians in Brazil standing on clearcut land; some forest remains in the background
Photographs by Alex Webb
National Geographic's amazing article on the loss of the Amazon from logging, ranching and production of soy and other crops.
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This Old House Promotes Rainforest Destruction
This Old House logo
On Oct. 23, 2005, This Old House suggested two tropical rainforest woods and two temperate rainforest woods for siding for their current project.
This Old House is once again promoting the use of wood logged from rainforests, thus speeding the destruction of Earth's most biodiverse ecosystems.
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Logging in the Amazon May Double Estimated Damage
Logs piled up after logging in the Amazon
Freshly cut logs from the Amazon rainforest in northern Brazil are seen in this August 18 photo. (Paulo Whitaker/Reuters)
A new study of satellite images from the Brazilian Amazon shows that the estimates of rainforest destruction should be doubled due to logging.
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Linens 'N' Things to End Sales of Nyatoh Furniture
Linens 'N' Things Logo
LNT has ceased to purchase outdoor furniture made from nyatoh, a wood logged from the old growth rainforests of Indonesia.
Linens 'N' Things, a large retailer with 500 stores across the US and Canada, has announced an end to the purchase and sales of outdoor furniture made from nyatoh, logged from the endangered rainforests of Indonesia.
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Gardener's Supply Ends Sales of Outdoor Furniture from Endangered Forests
Eco-Teak bench sold by Gardener's Supply made from plantation teak.
Eco-Teak bench sold by Gardener's Supply made from plantation teak
Gardener's Supply, a catalog company with two retail stores in Vermont, has responded to our campaign and ended their sales of outdoor furniture made from wood logged from endangered tropical forests.
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Earth About to Catch 100,000-year "Morbid Fever"
Fires burning in the Amazon rainforest
Fires raging in the Amazon. Photo from brazil-travel-guide.com.
James Lovelock, innovator of the Gaia hypothesis, predicts that the tropics will become scrub desert and that Civilization will not survive climate change.web
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Washington Post Article on Illegal Logging and China
Front page of the Washington Post, Sunday, April 1, 2007, with headline, "Corruption Stains Timber Trade"
Page 1 of the Sunday, April 1, 2007 Washington Post.
The Washington Post has published an incredible article on illegal logging taking place in East Asia and around the world, to feed the insatiable demand of Chinese factories exporting wood products to the world.
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National Waterfronts Project
About.com, a subsidiary of The New York Times Company, is promoting the use of rainforest woods, many of which are illegally logged, in articles on home decking.
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US Bill Introduced to Ban Imports of Wood Logged Illegally
Two men standing and one sitting on logs on the ground in a clearing in the rainforest
Tim Keating of Rainforest Relief and George Marshall, formerly of Rainforest Foundation standing on mahogany logs that were illegally logged in Belize. The man sitting is from a nearby Mayan village and a former coordinator of the Toledo Maya Cultural Council.
Landmark legislation that would enable the banning of the imports of wood logged illegally into the US has been introduced into the US Congress.
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New York Times Article on Amazon Illegal Logging
Truck driver and a cargo of illegal logs
Transporting illegal logs. Joao Silva for The New York Times
An article in the New York Times exposes continuing and increasing illegal logging in the Brazilian Amazon. Read the story and our response.
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Vons
Bar made of nyatoh wood for sale at Vons
At least 75% of logging in Indonesia's rainforests is done illegally and logging is driving destruction that is leading to these forests disappearing by 2010. Demand for nyatoh, manufactured into products like this bar, and other woods is driving the logging.
Vons, a food and product retailer with 325 stores in southern California, is selling furniture made of nyatoh logged from Indonesia's dwindling rainforests.
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About.com Promotes Rainforest Destruction
About Logo
About.com promotes the purchase of ipê, Shorea and other rainforest woods for decking
About.com, a subsidiary of The New York Times Company, is promoting the use of rainforest woods, many of which are illegally logged, in articles on home decking.
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The Rainforests of New York: A Trail of Destruction
Man speaking in front of a number of other people, with one man holding a tape recorder up to the speaker, all standing on a wooden walkway, with city buildings in the background.
Tim Doody of Rainforest Relief (left) speaks to those attending our recent Rainforests of New York tour. Photo © by Tim Keating/Rainforest Relief.
On November 12, 2008, Rainforest Relief and New York Climate Action Group conducted a tour of the rainforest wood of lower Manhattan for City and State officials, the media and the public.
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