RAINFOREST ACTIVISTS SWARM FURNITURE MARKET;
MAHOGANY BAN DEMANDED
October 15, 1996

High Point, NCÐ Dozens of rainforest activists are pouring into town for the semi-annual High Point Furniture Market, to join the biggest mahogany demonstration ever held in the US. The protest will take place in front of the International Home Furnishings Building on the 200 block of Main St from 3:30-4:30 PM on Thursday, October 17. Activists will legally unfurl a giant 50' banner which reads, 3Save the Amazon! Don1t Buy Mahogany!,2 along with several other banners, signs, and strong visual images.

Latin American Mahogany is becoming endangered, and because most of the legal stands of the wood have been cut, pirate loggers sometimes invade indigenous and wildlife reserves, killing those who stand in their way. At least eight tribes in Brazil have had people murdered at the hands of mahogany loggers. 3The extreme social and environmental atrocities caused by logging mahogany make it impossible for a compassionate consumer to buy mahogany,2 says EarthCulture1s Brendan Gannon. 3Luxury furniture items should not cost the lives of indigenous peoples.2

EarthCulture met with Thomasville Furniture executives last week, and were told, 3As long as consumers buy it, and Brazil allows us to use it, we will use mahogany,2 by Senior Vice-President Chuck Gordon. Other major users of mahogany present at the Market include: Hickory Chair, Lexington, Drexel Heritage, Universal, Karges, La-Z-Boy, Bernhardt, Lane, Kimball, Ethan Allen, Cabot Wrenn, and Baker.

Activists are not too discouraged by Thomasville1s shortsighted stance, however. 3Mahogany use is on its way out,2 says Rick Spencer, of EarthCulture. 3The mahogany boycott is spreading, the Brazilian government has just passed a moratorium restricting its trade, and we feel CITES will declare it an endangered species in six months.2 The Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES) nearly listed mahogany as an endangered species in 1994, and support for its listing in 1997 is growing. Although the US is the leading importer of mahogany, the US CITES delegation has supported the proposal in the past and should next year as well.

3We are asking consumers to stop buying mahogany, in order to help save an endangered species, the Amazon rainforest, and its indigenous peoples,2 says Spencer.

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