I recieved a very interesting e mail from a friend Luciana who lives in Kenya with regards to our idea of making a Bushdrums wood carving logo - PLEASE READ BELOW
I must admit that I did not think of the following and therefore would like to share part of the e mail sent to me as I think it is a very important note with regards to using SUSTAINABLE WOOD and also to start "pushing" on - NO SEA SHELLS Policy.
I am a keen diver and if I think of what is left in the sea around Italy, Greece - as well as the East African Coast (between 2 to 12 meters) there is practically nothing left.
Thank you Luciana -
Nico, Founder of Bushdrums
Part of an e mail from Luciana who is very active with the Colobus Trust in Kenya. What is Colobus Trust? - Please visit http://www.colobustrust.org
Luciana came up with a constructive comment with regards to Our 1st Newsletter from Bushdrums (Via Carsten and Nico) where we came up with an idea of a carved Bushdrummer.
Perhaps we can look into making it out of completely different material? Something recycled?
PART OF THE E MAIL:
I like your idea of the Akamba carving but one thing you must be strict on is that they use SUSTAINABLE WOOD, i.e. fast growing woods. We have a project on this at the Colobus Trust - there is something similar in Nairobi where we teach the woodcarvers to use SUSTAINABLE WOOD, such as the Neem Tree, Jakaranda or Mango which grow very fast. At the shops where I work I will not buy any other wood articles for reselling unless they are sustainable. All the other woods are now fast disappearing for as you know these take over 100 years to grow, whereas the sustainable ones about 7 years. We are also trying to educate the tourists to only buy “good woods†as we call them and which are just as beautiful.
Added to your no ivory policy should be included no sea shells as our Ocean has been cleaned out and very few shells to be found thus destroying all the ecosystem.
For further information on the Colobus Trust please visit http://www.colobustrust.org