Ipe (pronounced ee-pay) is a
tropical rainforest hardwood that is being used now in the US as a high end deck/exterior use material. It is extremely dense and hard. In information from floorings.com, ipe's
environmental profile suggests that "the species is rather widespread, abundant, and secure globally, although it may be quite rare in parts of it's range". It is found to be distributed widely from
Columbia to
Bolivia, the Guianas and southeastern
Brazil.
However in the wake of a contoversial attempt by
Asbury Park, New Jersey to use ipe for it's boardwalk reconstruction legislation has been introduced to prohibit shore communities from using irresponsibly harvested tropical rainforest
timber. The
Sierra Club has estimated that Asbury Park's
boardwalk repair plans would result in the destruction of 30,000 acres of rainforest.
Rainforest Relief, an environmental orginization from New York states that ipe wood is sought for it's strength, but most of it's
logging is done illegally. "The survival of the rainforest is not a
trendy environmental cause, it's a
global necessity." states Assemblyman Gary Guear (D-Mercer).