The wood from the coconut plant’s single stem was once discarded as a sustainable usage of a by-product that would otherwise go to waste. However, coconut is an invasive species. There are concerns over the diversity of islands and atolls where coconut plantations overtake native vegetation in local forests. So we had to ask: How sustainable is it to buy products made out of coconut wood?
Coconut wood is sustainable, thanks to its carbon sequestration. As coconut is a short-lived tropical species, especially if compared with some rainforest hardwood trees, logging has a lesser ecological cost. Also, coconut trees are cut down only when they stop being productive.
Here’s How Sustainable Coconut Wood Is
Coconut wood is a sustainable material because of the plant’s carbon sequestration potential and the carbon offset value at the end of any products made of this by-product of the coconut fruit.
“Sustainable: The ability to be maintained at a certain rate or level | Avoidance of the depletion of natural resources in order to maintain an ecological balance”
Oxford Dictionary
What Type of Wood is Coconut and What Does This Mean for Sustainability
Coconut wood, or red palm, comes from the short-lived tropical species of the Cocos nucifera genus in the Palm family. There are about 190 genera, 2800 species of palms, making the family one of the largest in the monocotyledon (or monocot) group. Other widely-known families in this group are banana and bamboo.
As a monocot, coconut is more closely related to grass than trees: the plant has only a single stem, no bark, no branches, or secondary growth. Thus, coconut wood is technically neither hardwood nor softwood. However, coconut or some other palm species are commonly called “trees” because these plants have equivalent sizes to some trees (i.e., much larger than most grasses). Similarly, in this article, we sometimes refer to coconut as a tree.
There are two types of coconut plants: Talls and Dwarfs. And as the classification implies, these plants differ in height.
- The tall variety is slow-growing. Fruit-bearing starts around 6 to 10 years and continues even after 80 to 120 years. The tall coconut tree can reach 100 feet.
- The dwarf variety grows at a faster rate but reaches a smaller height – about half – compared with its tall counterpart. Fruit-bearing begins a year or two earlier. After a short productive life of 30-40 years, dwarf coconut trees could already be cut down for harvesting wood.
How Sustainably Does Coconut Wood Grow
Coconut wood’s sustainability lies in the potential for carbon sequestration, its wide distribution, and the multiple benefits of land used for growing coconut trees.
- Carbon sequestration: As coconut trees grow, they absorb CO2 from the atmosphere while releasing oxygen. During their lifespan, they act as a carbon sink. This means that they are taking greenhouse gasses out of the atmosphere, helping to mitigate the climate crisis. They can store a significant amount thanks to their size (reaching 100 feet in height and 1.3 feet in diameter).
For example, the carbon sequestration potential of ten-year-old coconut trees (Tall or Dwarf) averages between 18 and 28 kg per tree per year, as reported in a plantation in India. This specific fifteen-year-old plantation of nearly 70,000 acres (27,974 hectares) had sequestered 1.15 million tons of carbon from the atmosphere.
- Wide distribution: While coconut trees originated in the Indian-Indonesian region, they now grow throughout the tropics worldwide, including hotter parts of the US like Florida and Hawaii. One big reason for this is that the coconut fruit (the seed) can float far and wide on the water and still germinate once washed ashore. Also, coconut seedlings can survive many types of soil.
The plant’s worldwide distribution, relatively fast growth, and short lives contribute to its being sustainable. It is possible to source coconut wood with a shorter traveling distance and a lower ecological cost than hardwood from endangered tree species like teak or rosewood.
- Land use: Coconut wood is one of the many benefits coming from a coconut plantation. It is the last thing to be harvested from a plant that no longer produces sap and fruit. Cutting down a coconut tree then provides material for construction and household usage while making room for more trees to grow. Using this supposed waste as a material is highly sustainable.
Without a tree-like canopy, coconut trees give little shade. Thus, this species can work in multistoried agrosystems. (Agrosystems are the intentional combination of agriculture and forestry to create productive and sustainable land-use practices). A coconut plantation can also harbor profitable crops of smaller and shade-tolerant plants like banana, cacao, coffee, and various vegetables.
Coconut trees are cut down only when they stop being productive. Hence, logging makes room for more trees to grow, starting a new cycle with possible harvests for food, drinks, and more. This is the main reason why coconut wood is considered highly sustainable.