ABSTRACT
Commercial woodcarving in the 21st century is a microcosm of the ‘globalized’ world. Traditional artefacts with deep cultural significance have become desired objects of art in faraway lands. Tourists criss-cross the world, sampling food, culture and exotic environments, and buy souvenirs of their journeys. Woodcarvings – light, inexpensive and attractive – are popular as gifts and decorative items for the home. But there are severe pressures on the people who produce carving wood and carvings alike, and on the natural environments that still serve as the source for most carved wood. In many poor countries with large numbers of unemployed, people rely on the environment to help meet their daily needs. They harvest various products from forests, grasslands, wetlands and the sea, and, wherever they can find a market, they try to convert some of those resources into cash. Woodcarving has proven to be a good way of doing that: with limited investment in tools, some skills and access to wood for carving, a carver can make a product that, with a little luck, might sell at the roadside market. However, they compete with others with similar ideas for raw material and for customers, with the common result that resources are depleted and profits are low.
