Until we secured our source of FSC Iroko, we turned business away not only becasue of the sustainable issues, but also the environmental ones. This shocking headline was in the Telegraph on the 8th January 2012 " Loggers 'burned Amazon tribe girl alive'". In an effort to force the indingenous rain forest population from its land, one the last uncontacted tribes of the Amazon, the loggers tied the girl to a tree and burned her alive. Whilst this gets headlines from Brazil, the sad fact is that in Africa this behaviour is commonplace. So when you buy a product where the retailer claims to be either sustainable or environmentally friendly, unless both the company and the timber has full FSC certification, it's a LIE. And by buying a non certified product where the rules are followed, you are, tragically and frequently unwittingly, putting money in the hands of those who kill in the name of profit. It costs us a lot of money to maintain our FSC certifcation, including a lot of administration. The timber is more expensive too. But then we love what we do and how we do it. It's not all about the money. By the way, the same is true for 'African Walnut' (no such thing, just a spin doctor's creation), 'Zebrano', and worst of all 'Wenge' which is actually on the UN endangered specii list - non of these timbers have any third party sustainability accreditation. Please do see our page on our environmental policy.