Managing 60,000 football pitches

We recently reported on our (Dutch) Duoplank manufacturer's involvement with Forest Stewardship Council and reforestation in South America.

FSC and creating sustainable forests is on ongoing business. Life is 'give and take'. This rule applies more than ever in the 30,000 hectare FSC forest owned and managed by Inpa in Bolivia.

"Put everything back into the forest what you have taken out. Call upon the services of the local inhabitants, but give them their due. Show respect for all forms of life in and around the forest."

This is the philosophy which J. Roosenboom, founder of the Dutch company, believed in 20 years ago and implemented his philosophy with reforestation projects in Paraguay.

In 2001 the company bought its own forest in Bolivia, South America. Sustainable management of the forest by the company is also the key to long-term operational management - in and around the forest. A fully self-supporting micro-economy has been created: the forest has its own road infrastructure, its own water and energy suppliers, not only benefiting the company and the forest but also the local residents, who are closely involved in the project.

FSC in practice
Managing a forest of 30,000 hectare is no sinecure. The surface area is roughly the same amount as 60,000 football pitches. The management procedure in itself is impressive:

• The forest engineer and helpers search the depths of the forest for trees and gradually make a map of the whole area
• An (ongoing) inventory of the forest is drawn up
• The FSC has to grant permission for tree-felling, requested per 'block' of forest
• In each block trees are cut selectively - the block is then closed for at least a quarter of a century and is only accessible to scientist who carry out research.
• Every cut tree bears a permanent accompanying FSC label.

The 'harvested' trees are then processed in one of the 4 company's own sawmills in Bolivia. The equipment of these sawmills are the state of the art: a modern saw, a self-grinding machine for saw-blades and an adjustable 'intelligent' decision-maker, The Opticut, which decides how each plank must be sawn.
The wood is pre-dried in the drying-sheds before it's transported further to the company's parquet factory in Paraguay and from there finds its way to final destinations all over the world.

To our showroom in Charing for instance. Wood You Like has a whole range of Duoplanks on show, from the Oak range to - of course - most of the FSC wood species.