Environment-friendly Tropical Hardwood from the Brokopondo Hydro Lake
History
Suriname is among the most forested countries in the world, and hidden within the depths of the vast Brokopondo lake, lies an immense treasure of reclaimable tropical hardwood trees.
A large swath of forest was submerged over six decades ago, when the Afobaka Hydro Dam, also know in Dutch as Brokopondo stuwmeer, was constructed in 1961 across the Suriname River. As the dam’s waterline rose it covered a vast area measuring about one hundred and fifty thousand hectares and eventually submerged about fifty million cubic meters of tropical hardwood trees. Today, we are proud to say that our company Brokopondo Lake Wood N.V., part of the Lakewood Group are exclusive custodians of this treasure trove of Reservoir Wood, which is a truly unique natural resource.
Our Commitment
The submerged trees and invaluable wood they yield, are naturally preserved by the freshwater of Brokopondo lake. Our Reservoir Wood is in a class of its own as far as its “eco-friendly” credentials are concerned, because our reclamation operation does not impact any living eco-system. This forms the cornerstone of our key investments in sustainable sourcing of timber.
The harvesting process at our Brokopondo lake concession can be rightly classified as one of the most ecologically conscious timber reclamation operations in the world today.
Corporate Social Responsibility
Even though the reach of our group is global – we have always understood the importance of our roots and have forged intrinsic partnerships with local communities around Brokopondo lake. We work closely with them to reduce any impact our operation might have on their day to day livelihood.
Ecologically Conscious Timber
We have put in place best in class industry practices to manage our lake concession. Our team of highly skilled divers meticulously comb the depths of Brokopondo lake to select and reclaim the best logs, which are transformed in our state of the art Primary and Secondary Processing Facilities in Suriname and UAE, into various value added forest products such as: Decking, Cladding, Laminated Scantlings and other high performance timber products that are sold across the globe.
Brokopondo Lakewood N.V. and the entire Lakewood Group of companies remains committed to our core beliefs – by advocating the importance of utilizing our reclaimed wood, be it for a small deck at your home or for large scale projects that need to be built to world leading ecological standards. Thus, preserving our planets living forests for generations to come.