Yamaha Club Custom Bassdrum shell - Malaysian Kapur Wood

Kapur (or Kapor) is a

dipterocarp Dipterocarpaceae is a family of 16 genera and about 695 known species of mainly tropical lowland rainforest trees. The family name, from the type genus ''Dipterocarpus'', is derived from Greek (''di'' = two, ''pteron'' = wing and ''karpos'' = fru ...

hardwood Hardwood is wood from dicot trees. These are usually found in broad-leaved temperate and tropical forests. In temperate and boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostly evergreen. Hardwood (which comes from ...

from trees of the genus '' Dryobalanops'' found in lowland

tropical rainforest Tropical rainforests are rainforests that occur in areas of tropical rainforest climate in which there is no dry season – all months have an average precipitation of at least 60 mm – and may also be referred to as ''lowland equatori ...

s of

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

and South-East Asia.Kapur
at Queensland Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation It is a durable construction tropical timber. One variety, '' D. aromatica'', is a source of

camphor Camphor () is a waxy, colorless solid with a strong aroma. It is classified as a terpenoid and a cyclic ketone. It is found in the wood of the camphor laurel ('' Cinnamomum camphora''), a large evergreen tree found in East Asia; and in the k ...

Species

The name Kapur can refer to the following species from the Dryobalanops genus: * '' D. aromatica'' * '' D. beccarii'' * '' D. fusca'' * '' D. keithii'' * '' D. lanceolata'' * '' D. oblongifolia'' * '' D. rappa''

Deforestation

Kapur is logged from

old-growth forest An old-growth forestalso termed primary forest, virgin forest, late seral forest, primeval forest, or first-growth forestis a forest that has attained great age without significant disturbance, and thereby exhibits unique ecological featur ...

, often illegally. These forests have developed over the course of hundreds of years. When harvested, these trees are often between 250 and 1000 years old. For a tree from the family Dipterocarpaceae, it takes approximately 100 years to reach a height of 30 meters. Most of the species that are sold as Kapur, are listed on the

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biol ...

for

endangered species An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inv ...

. For example, ''D. fusca'' is critically endangered.

Overexploitation Overexploitation, also called overharvesting, refers to harvesting a renewable resource to the point of diminishing returns. Continued overexploitation can lead to the destruction of the resource, as it will be unable to replenish. The term app ...

has led to large scale

deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. The most concentrated d ...

in the tropics. The International Tropical Timber Organization is concerned with conserving the

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

of trees producing tropical timber. According to FSC, certified tropical hardwood can counteract deforestation. Forests that are managed according to the FSC standards, become economically valuable and might therefore not be converted to farmland. However, other organisations advise consumers to stay away from Kapur altogether to avoid logging of centuries-old trees.

References

{{Reflist Dipterocarpaceae Hardwood forest plants Plant common names Wood

Species

Deforestation

See also

References