Teak: Scourge and Redemption
A 1990’s legacy was poisoning the soil of our site. This is how we learned that sometimes reforestation means cutting down thousands of trees - and making furniture out of them.
Teak (tectona grandis) is an endemic species from Southeast Asia, and it became a hot commodity in theforestry world of Panama in the 90’s because teak plantations were supposed to have a very attractive ROI. However, the teak didn’t grow as expected in Panama and it intensified the acidity of already acidic soil, rendering barren lands where native plants that produce food for local animals could no longer grow. When we arrived…