Mahoganies: Candidates
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Mahoganies: candidates Sabina G. Knees and Martin F. Gardner Mahogany ranks as one of the world's small genus of tropical trees in the Mahogany finest timbers and it will probably be family, the Meliaceae. Swietenia has a compara- commercially extinct by 1990. The tively widespread distribution, from Mexico in the north through Central America and Amazonia, to dramatic decrease in trade of true Peru and Bolivia in the south of its range (Pen- mahogany as well as a switch to pre- nington and Styles, 1981). Honduras mahogany viously untapped resources since the is derived from Swietenia macrophylla, a large early 1970s reflects a general pattern of tree often attaining heights of 25-30 m or more, over-exploitation of tropical rainforests. with a straight bole of up to 18 m by 2 m in dia- The lack of mahogany cultivation and a meter. A very similar timber is obtained from Khaya species, better known as African mahog- move into other, unrelated mahogany- any. In appearance and working properties like, primary rain forest hardwoods, such African mahogany is difficult to distinguish from as meranti and red lauan, emphasises an Honduras mahogany. This is not surprising since inevitable and irreversible decline for both Khaya and Swietenia are closely related many hardwood forests. The authors genera in the same family, the Meliaceae. Khaya occurs predominantly in the narrow belt of rain give a summary of historical and current forest in West Africa, and although there are five trade patterns in mahogany as part of a species, the bulk of African mahogany comes pilot study initiated and sponsored by from Khaya ivorensis. This is a very large tree, ffPS in 1982. reaching 30-43 m in favourable situations. With a clear bole of 11-28 m it is easy to appreciate Mahogany is a trade name applied to stable dark what a valuable source of timber this species red, tropical hardwoods noted for their water and provides (Anon., 1945). pest resistance (Edlin, 1969). This unique com- Prior to 1950 several other species in the bination of qualities is very much sought after by Meliaceae were also called mahogany, with the the timber trade and for centuries mahogany has local geographical name as an identifying prefix. been considered ideal for almost everything, its For example, Entandrophragma angolense a uses ranging from shipbuilding to cabinet-making Nigerian species, used to be called Jebu mahog- (Anon., no date). any (Latham, no date). It is now more likely to be sold under the names edinam or gedu-nohor. A The trees involved comparable situation is found on examination of At least 23 species are involved in the trade and South East Asian timber trade statistics. In the because of discrepancies between vernacular and Philippines, for example, many species of scientific names it is often difficult to understand another important family of tropical trees, the the trade (see Table 1) (Anon., 1945). True Dipterocarpaceae, are also prized for their deep mahogany is the timber derived from Swietenia, a red timbers (Floresca, 1973). These are less 88 OryxVoll7No2 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.202.8, on 30 Sep 2021 at 19:27:21, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605300024959 for the Red Data Book valuable than the mahoganies from Central mahogany, sometimes without the prefix America and Africa, but occasionally the timbers (Lomibao, 1973). meranti and red lauan (Shorea and Parashorea species) are described in the trade as Philippine History of trade Table 1. Mahogany trading on an international scale began in the late sixteenth century, when the first Common name Scientific name Spanish explorers reached the West Indies Spanish mahogany Swietenia mahagoni (Lamb, 1966). Hardwood was one of their first Cuban mahogany Swietenia mahagoni requirements, to repair damaged ships. Their Jamaican mahogany Swietenia mahagoni choice of timber was inspired by the native people Honduras mahogany Swietenia macrophylla of Hispaniola, who had used mahogany Pacific coast mahogany Swietenia humilis NB. All the above often (Swietenia mahagoni) trunks to manufacture referred to simply as canoes (Latham, 1957). The explorers also Central American needed a worthwhile cargo to fill their holds on mahogany the return journey and took quantities of the timber to King Phillip II, as a gift; it was used for African mahogany Khaya ivorensis doors, windows and desks in the library of the Khaya grandifolia Khaya arthotheca great Escorial Palace. This began in 1584 and is Khaya senegalensis the first known use of mahogany in Europe (Lamb, 1966). By 1730 trade between England Makore mahogany Mimusops heckelii and the West Indies was well established, with Cherry mahogany Mimusops heckelii Sapele mahogany Entandrophragma cylindricum Jamaican mahogany fetching £8 per ton. In Utile mahogany Entandrophragma angolense 1770, 15,675 pieces of mahogany, totalling a Entandrophragma macrophyllum volume of 8500 cubic feet were exported from Entandrophragma septentrionale Jamaica and valued at £50,000 (Latham, 1957). NB. Since 1960 utile. sapele and makore are Meanwhile, the then British Empire was ex- treated as distinct from panding in other directions and attention was mahogany temporarily switched to the rain forests of West Philippine mahogany Shorea leprosula Africa. The Royal Africa Company, having Shorea argentifolia received its charter from Charles II in 1672, was Shorea leptoclados soon to begin trading in West African mahogany Shorea macroptera Shorea parvifolia or khaya, a timber almost indistinguishable from Shorea sandakanensis Swietenia (Latham, 1957). International trade in Shorea smithiana mahogany continued to expand until the latter Shorea almon half of the twentieth century, when dwindling Parashorea plicata supplies caused rapid escalations in price and Parashorea malanonan forced the importers to look elsewhere. Mahoganies 89 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.202.8, on 30 Sep 2021 at 19:27:21, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605300024959 Trade patterns in the 1970s A survey of 99 British importers was undertaken in 1982 to determine current trends in mahogany trade. Thirty-five replied to the following questionnaire: (1) Annual quantity of timber imported under the trade name mahogany, in cubic metres, for the years 1950, 1960, 1970 and 1980? (2) Price per cubic metre at the time of purchase? (3) Any further information regarding inter- national suppliers, particularly those operating in country of origin, would be This stump of Swietenia humilis, cut in 1946 during explora- greatly appreciated. tory forest projects in Costa Rica, had scarcely rotted by 1983 Over 50 per cent of the replies were very in- (C. Humphries). formative, while 77 per cent yielded further of the statistics to show what appears to be the potentially useful sources of information. How- case is partly due to the fact that much Brazilian ever, interestingly, only 55 per cent of the timber comes to the UK via North America importers who replied actually kept any records (Taylor. 1982, pers. comm.). of past trading activities. The increasing cost of true mahoganies has From the results it seems that the trend in inter- forced timber traders to seek suitable alternatives national trade shows a marked shift in emphasis, elsewhere. The similarly red-coloured, durable from Africa to South America by the mid-1970s, timbers of tree species belonging to the Diptero- and towards the latter part of the decade, carpaceae family have recently become very increasing reliance on South East Asian stocks. familiar to European merchants (Floresca, 1973). Figure 1 shows United Kingdom imports of These timbers, which come from several closely mahogany from the major exporting countries of related species are commonly known as Philip- Africa, over a 10-year period. Several of the pine mahogany (Lomibao, 1973), and although importers involved in the survey commented on these woods are not normally used for high class the decline in trade with African countries, often apportioning the reasons to factors other than • Cameroon Figure 1. Annual O Ghana natural resource depletion. For example, one quantity of dealer stated that '. export of wooden goods • Ivory Coast • Nigeria Mahogany ceased after 1960 when oil was found in (sawlogs and Nigeria. .' (Allot, 1982, pers. comm.). However, veneer logs) it should be added that during the 1970s. Nigeria imported into the became an importer of timber (Burton, 1983, United Kingdom pers. comm.) and having lost most of its primary from some rain forest to secondary and tertiary forest, which African countries is species poor, it can now be described as forest during the 1970s. bankrupt (Leakey, 1983, pers. comm.). Source: UK As a result of wildly fluctuating prices many Yearbook of importers have turned to Brazil for their supplies. Timber Statistics. The current price of Brazilian mahogany is low 1970-1979, and comparatively stable, as for example con- Timber Trades firmed by Allot (1982, pers. comm.), 'At present, Federation. in sawn lumber, Brazil probably sends about 90 per cent of all mahogany to the UK.' However, this is not reflected in recent trade statistics, which 1970 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 1979 at present are only complete for 1979. This failure Time 90 OryxVoll7No2 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.202.8, on 30 Sep 2021 at 19:27:21, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605300024959 Mahogany species are being extracted at a rate which far exceeds replenishment (Anon, 1982b), when even the basic biology is not fully under- stood. In addition, it is thought that the world's timber demand is likely to reach 300 million cubic metres per annum by 2025 and.