Exotic Wood World is a company dedicated to providing the finest quality Amazon Wood Products to the North American market. This 7 year venture has opened the eyes of many government officials of several nations. Supported countless journeys into the Amazon for the search of new and undiscovered species, initiated what we believe to be the larges research project dedicated to the forest, plant and animals, in the Amazon today. Along the way we have supported several local communities with medical and financial assistance. Together with this continued support the indigenous people of the Amazon Basin will have an even brighter future.
A full time staff of 35 people are employed in Iquitos, Peru located in the upper Amazon Basin for the purpose of searching for and obtaining new and beautiful species of wood for the North American markets. To date the operation in Peru has located a wide variety of woods that are processed locally into several beautiful products. Virtually every color and grain pattern is available in the warehouse in Iquitos, Peru. Every six weeks we have shipping service direct from Iquitos to Houston and container loads of wood are shipped ready for sale in the North American market. The majority of the woods are salvaged form charcoal operations and road and land clearing areas and are harvested in accordance with the strict forestry laws of Peru developed by the WWF. ( see permit section)
Research is ongoing to obtain a constant supply of new and interesting woods as well as maintaining a supply of the ready know species. Many of the woods are unidentified but are classified into general families for the most basic identification. Our wood identification program is the largest on record in Peru. Our research facility is used by local university students for identification and clarification of species weekly. Several U.S. dedicated scientists commit months every year researching and finding new and beautiful species never seen before. The scientific world is very much in disarray when it comes to identifying tropical woods. One needs only to look at the web site of the US Department of Agriculture Tropical Forestry Lab to see the general confusion that exists in the ID of tropical species. Most woods have common names that vary from country to country and even river by river and community to community.
It may or may not surprise you to know that many species can have up to 30 or more scientific names. Over the years researchers have "discovered" a wood in one area and registered it with a scientific name not knowing that it had been registered many times before by others thus leading to the confusion we have today. With the recent spread of information via the internet this problem has become more evident. With commitment and continued research we hope to be part of the solution. For this very problem we have the largest collection of woods in Peru and are continuously working to identify more.
