Don''t buy endangered merbau wood floors

Be careful about which sort of wood you use when laying new floors in your self-built property because one sort of wood is being endangered due to a glut of people wanting it.

Golden wood merbau is found in New Guinea and has become immensely popular for yellow-specked flooring in the UK but environmental charity Greenpeace warns that "rapacious illegal logging" of the wood is leading to it becoming extinct.

In just 35 years merbau could be extinct, according to the Independent, although many stores in this country still sell it including Floors 2 Go and Topps Tiles.

In some forests only one to five merbau trees are found per hectare but loggers are clearing huge swathes of forest just to get to these trees.

Greenpeace recommends that instead of buying merbau, customers go for products with the Forest Stewardship Council logo because this ensures the wood is ethically sources and sustainable.


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