The Cork fabric we use to make our Swift in Cork, Cork Organizer Pouches, and
Imago in Steel/Cork/Wasabi is real cork, harvested from cork oak trees in Portugal.
A single cork tree with a lifespan of up to 200 years can be harvested for its cork
bark every nine years. Sadly, many wineries are choosing to use plastic “corks” or
metal screw caps for their wines, and the ancient cork forests of Portugal are
economically threatened: the cork forests may be replanted with fast-growing
eucalyptus or neglected entirely.
Environmentalists fear decline of corks made from cork
“A quarter of last summer’s bumper cork crop remains unsold and farmers have seen prices fall by up to 30 percent over the past five years.
Such stark figures are raising concerns about the future of the rural economy in one of the poorest parts of western Europe, and about a unique forest environment that’s home to some of Europe’s rarest wildlife.
“Unless the commercial value of cork stoppers is maintained, there’s a risk that these cork oak landscapes will face an economic crisis, an increase in poverty, an intensification of forest fires, a loss of irreplaceable biodiversity,” warned Nora Berrahmouni, head of forestry at the World Wildlife Fund’s Mediterranean office in Rome.”
Read the full article at the MinnPost.
Above: The Swift in Cork
