Several commodity activities are involved in manufacturing wood furniture. In the production chain, the first step is to log wood, extracting wood resources in forests. The wood log taken from forests would be delivered to sawmills, where machines process the wood log, in order to shape the wood log as required. Furniture manufacturer would check and measure the processed timber to ensure sizes are within requirements.
An increasing demand of wood has led to severe deforestation in forests. The Amazon rainforest, known as the largest forest on Earth, holds about half of the world’s rainforests. 90% of the Amazon area, which covers about four million square kilometers, was once forested (Chavez, et al., 2014). However, the Amazon has encountered scores of challenges and threats over recent decades. Excessive extraction of wood is a leading determiner of the deforestation in the area. Rampant deforestation in the Amazon also cause loss of biodiversity, more green house gases emissions, and other environmental problems.
(Photo Credit: Jessejay)