Are You Eating Dinner on a Piece of Rainforest?

Love your new dining room table ... but did you ask the salesman whether it's made from chopped up rainforest trees?

A growing number of furniture shoppers are doing just that when they buy new home decor, concerned about the effects of shrinking rainforests on global warming and the extinction of rare species of flora and fauna that inhabit these forests.

"There's a lot of inexpensive places where you can get furniture from, but I ask myself - where is it being manufactured, where does the wood come from?" said Stephanie Zhong, a 38-year-old designer from Los Angeles.

"If people were more aware of it, they would choose to be a little bit more informed about what they are sitting on, the table they are working at," Zhong added.

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Green watchdogs warn I.Coast's tropical forests at risk

Ivory Coast's rare tropical forests risk vanishing due to excessive exploitation by timber logging firms, environmental watchdogs warned Thursday.

"Of the 123 companies in timber exploitation, only two respect the forestry regulations," Jacob N'Zi, head of Ecological Group of Ivory Coast (Geci), told AFP.



Geci accused the firms of ignoring a 2,000 to 10,000 cubic metre annual quota imposed by authorities for timber harvesting.

"If we are not careful, at this rate Ivory Coast forests will disappear in 10 years," N'Zi said.



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