Sout Cone works to preserve rainforest
By Tom Edmonds -- Furniture Today, March 3, 2002
LIMA, Peru — LIMA, Peru — South Cone Trading Co. has launched a program designed to create economic and environmental sustainability for lumber resources and people in the Central Amazon forests.
For its efforts, the company, which represents 75% of Peru's furniture exports, was recognized by the U.S. ambassador to Peru, John Hamilton, as a positive alternative to the coca production that fuels illicit drug trade with the United States.
Hamilton recently visited the South Cone factory in Lima to sign an anti-drug treaty with the government of Peru.
For South Cone, which makes midpriced and high-end case goods and occasional pieces, the new program is mainly about ensuring the survival of the forest and the people who live there.
Part of a four-year-old Giving Back Initiative started by Gerry Cooklin, owner and president, the new program is called PaTS, for Partnerships and Technology for Sustainability. The acronym PaTS is a word with indigenous roots, meaning "mother earth" for Peru's Yanesha people. The program, funded entirely by South Cone so far, will assist local communities with tools and skills necessary to manage forest resources and add value to harvested wood.
PaTS is already working in the Pichis and Pacazu river valleys to protect 470,000 acres directly and another 740,000 acres of nature preserve indirectly. The program aims to have the forests managed for long-term value rather than short-term gain.
"What we're trying to do is give the people the tools they need to manage the forest properly and to add value so they can get a higher return," said Fernando Ghersi, a forestry professional who is PaTS' general coordinator and one of its two full-time managers. PaTS will help the Yanesha and Ashaninka people create jobs and earn money without stripping the forests bare, said Ghersi.
Amy Smith, a career environmentalist who joined PaTS last year, said many Amazon communities have participated in conservation projects, but most such projects stall once the funding ends. By giving the participants management skills and the access to markets, PaTS is designed to provide enduring incentives to manage their forest resources properly for years to come, Smith said.
"They want to keep their forests and their way of life, and they know they have to do something different instead of cutting and clearing," Ghersi said.
| A label on lumber is part of the extensive record keeping necessary for South Cone to keep its Forest Stewardship Council certification, showing the wood is from sustainably managed forests. |
| Above: A carver in South Cone's factory fashions a chair arm. |
| Left: Jose Garido Lecca, left, South Cone's chief operating officer, talks with John Hamilton, the U.S. ambassador to Peru. South Cone backs a program called PaTS, aimed at sustaining the rainforest and its peoples. |
| Fernando Ghersi and Amy Smith are the two full-time managers of PaTS, the |
| Right: Peru's rainforest is well worth preserving, says South Cone President Gerry Cooklin. |
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