Architects and Builders Need to Know This About Brazilian Hardwoods

Due to over-harvesting and illegal logging, some common tropical hardwoods used for decking - Ipe and Camaru - are facing much stricter regulations for importing starting November 25th 2024. This could cause major delays in the supply chain.

If a project has specified one of these hardwoods sourced from Brazilian forests, it should be known that all imports of Ipe and Cumaru into the United States will now require CITES documentation.

What is CITES? It is an international agreement between governments to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival. Due to concerns about over-harvesting and illegal logging, Ipe and Cumaru are being added to CITES Appendix II. Appendix II includes species for which trade must be controlled in order to help protect survival. The goal is to ensure that any international trade involving these woods is sustainable and legal.

Certifying this documentation upon import could complicate things, leaving the shipment prone to 1) being confiscated upon import into the United States (if it doesn’t have the correct documentation), 2) taking excessive time — thus holding up projects, and 3) fines or other penalties imposed on importers of Ipe or Camaru.

In light of this, you can source high performance decking other than using one of these non-sustainable, tropical hardwoods.

Kebony offers up the properties and look of Brazilian hardwoods, while reducing deforestation. Kebony’s wood is sourced from fast-growing softwoods while the Kebony process transforms the the lumber, giving it new properties such as increased density and durability — in other words, engineered to last. Furthermore, enhancing the wood before installation with a wood conditioner like Cutek®, you’ve got a industrially viable alternative to tropical hardwoods that’s not threatening a species…. or your budget.