By Zac Faelnar-Camara

After writing a piece with Guinsaugon, Southern Leyte in mind, I wondered how consumers could realistically help lessen rampant logging.

It was clear in my mind that I wanted to recommend sources of wood, and later, wood-alternative products available in the market.

Well then, to my knowledge, there are a number of furniture shops popping up around Metro Manila. They display some of the most arresting shapes and designs at bargain prices. Many similar products are exported as exotic items and anyone will certainly be attracted to the fact that no two pieces are identical.

The sources of these displays are what the organized wood industry leaves behind. They are called roots. And the resulting products are one-of-a-kind hardwood root furniture.

You can find a rustic narra headboard, a set of kamagong bar stools or a unique solid molave chair for less than half the price of their fine furniture counterparts. You would be saving one more tree from being chopped down because you are purchasing what remains from forests long felled.

I would gladly, if not highly recommend to friends and designers to source these exquisite pieces as an effort to save our natural resources. There are no environmental laws against uprooting them.

But is digging out these stumps and gigantic roots a sustainable practice or yet another root cause of destruction? We are aware that roots, not excepting those of trees, are what hold soil together to prevent erosion. An article by Manuel Morato from the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s website brought this to my attention. He asked why, “these furniture pieces called “ugat-ugat” is a far more serious problem? Because it is a form of scavenging,” adding that, “Pulling it [the tree stump] out will eventually lead to the erosion of the soil, which causes landslides and mudflows.”

I wondered, “How then can consumers avoid contributing to more environmental damage while supporting a potentially eco-friendly design?”

Most of the tree root products in the international market are teak root furniture from government-owned teak plantations.

There exist hardwood tree plantations in parts of southern Philippines.

Perhaps, if local root furniture were sourced from well-managed forests like those, then nobody would think twice and would instead go home twice happier.