By <strong>Scott</strong> <strong>Wallace</strong>Photographs by Alex WebbMahogany is thecrown jewel of theAmazon, soaringin magnificentbuttressed columnshigh into the forest canopy. Its rich, red grainand durability make it one of the most covetedbuilding materials on Earth, favored by mastercraftsmen, a symbol of wealth and power. Asingle tree can fetch tens of thousands of dollarson the international market by the time itsfinished wood reaches showroom floors in theUnited States or Europe.After 2001, the year Brazil declared a moratoriumon logging big-leaf mahogany, Peru emergedas one of the world’s largest suppliers. The rushfor “red gold,” as mahogany is sometimes called,has left many of Peru’s watersheds—such as theAlto Tamaya, homeland of a group of AshéninkaIndians—stripped of their most valuable trees.The last stands of mahogany, as well as Spanishcedar, are now nearly all restricted to Indianlands, national parks, and territorial reserves setaside to protect isolated tribes.As a result, loggers are now taking aim atother canopy giants few of us have ever heardof—copaiba, ishpingo, shihuahuaco, capirona—which are finding their way into our homesas bedroom sets, cabinets, flooring, and patiodecks. These lesser known varieties have evenfewer protections than the more charismatic,pricier ones, like mahogany, but they’re oftenmore crucial to forest ecosystems. As loggersmove down the list from one species to the next,they’re cutting more trees to make up for diminishingreturns, threatening critical habitatsin the process. Primates, birds, and amphibiansthat make their homes in the upper stories ofthe forest are at increasing risk. Indigenouscommunities are in turmoil, divided betweenthose favoring conservation and those lookingfor fast cash. And some of the world’s most isolatedtribes are in flight from the whine of chainsaws and the terrifying crash of centuries-oldleviathans hitting the ground.Illicit practices are believed to account forthree-fourths of the annual Peruvian timber harvest.Despite a crackdown on mahogany loggingthat began five years ago and a sharp decline inproduction, much of the timber reaching marketsin the industrialized world is reported to be ofillegal origin. Most of those exports have gone tothe U.S. but are now increasingly bound for Asia.A short distance southeast of the Alto Tamaya,a 15,000-square-mile mosaic of protectedareas known as the Purús Conservation Complexteems with gigantic trees that first sproutedfrom the jungle floor centuries ago. This regionembraces the headwaters of the Purús and YurúaRivers, and tribes living in extreme isolationmaintain a presence in its rugged upland folds.It is also believed to hold as much as 80 percentof Peru’s remaining big-leaf mahogany.Illegal loggers are using surrounding Indiansettlements as a back door into the protectedlands. Many communities have been tricked bymen offering cash for help in obtaining loggingpermits, which they later use to launder mahoganyillegally cut inside the reserves. Along theAn agent from Peru’s park servicehand-measures the width of a sectionof an illegally cut mahogany. A loggerwith a chain saw can topple a centuriesoldtree like this behemoth in less thanhalf an hour.Huacapistea River, a Yurúa tributary that formsthe northwestern border of the Murunahua TerritorialReserve, duplicitous dealings have lefthalf a dozen Ashéninka communities impoverishedand disillusioned.At the height of the rainy season I join ChrisFagan, executive director of the U.S.-based UpperAmazon Conservancy, and Arsenio Calle,director of Alto Purús National Park, on a foray112 national geographic • april 2013 Mahogany’s <strong>Last</strong> <strong>Stand</strong> 113
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