In the photos on this page appear indigenous workers in the jungle selectively harvesting by hand only. In as few as 25 acres of jungle on northern Sulawesi up to 250 species of trees can be found. In these areas there exists no 'species-specific climax forest' - that is, an area of but a few associated species of trees like the 'oak-hickory' association found in the south-central U.S. Other images seen on this page show our "wax boogeyman" whose full-time job is to paint hot wax on the four sides and both ends twice of each Macassar Ebony heart-free cant we select. He wears very heat-resistant gloves, boots and a heavy terry-cloth mask to prevent getting burned by the hot wax he applies to the Macassar Ebony ends. The image in the lower left corner shows the huge Macassar Ebony heart-free cants we are only rarely able to acquire. Note the sizes of the largest cants fully wrapped in plastic, compared to the 'normal-sized' cants in the yard. Cants selected by us are carefully and thoroughly power-washed, waxed on all four faces and then waxed on each end twice. After the wax dries, each respective cant is carefully wrapped in plastic in preparation for export to our facilitiy in the U.S. This fully protects each cant for shipment, storage at our facility, and stabilizes the wood moisture content. No 'clear-cutting' of Macassar Ebony is ever practiced by us. One Macassar Ebony tree of commercial size may be found in one location, another 300 meters to the west and another 600 meters to the east. Macassar Ebony is the only species in the jungle harvested by the native workers that supply us. Hand-logging at its best, though far less than optimally efficient. As a direct result, however, the jungle is as intact after we finish hand-logging maybe 1% of the inventory as it is before we begin. Even Greenpeace now espouses the benefits of 'community-based forestry', whereby indigenous peoples can protect their resource and forest by actively managing it with low-impact, low-volume hand-harvesting, and thereby establishing a sense of community responsibility and stewardship for their resource and home area. _________________________________________ Sign Up For Our Macassar Ebony Newsletter Kurt's Phone: |