The yachting industry searches for alternatives to teak

BBC:

Tech titan Jeff Bezos’s $500m (£366m) superyacht, Koru, delivered in 2023, uses teak in its interior and for its decking.

The dense and heavy tropical hardwood is prized for its remarkable properties such as rot and salt resistance, as well as its beauty and as a symbol of status and prestige.

The highest quality teak comes from old-growth trees, which are harvested from natural forests almost exclusively in Myanmar.

But sold by the country’s military-linked sector, with little regard for sustainability, the timber is illegal to import into the UK, EU and US.

Trade sanctions were imposed on the sector in 2021 following the coup there, though imports were already heavily restricted under longstanding laws.

Netherlands-based shipyard Oceanco, which built the Koru for Bezos, was fined in late 2024 by the authorities there for using Myanmar teak in the yacht’s interior.

Whether the Koru’s deck is also illegal Myanmar teak – or comes from legal plantations elsewhere – is under investigation in Germany, where the first importer of the deck’s wood appears to have been based.

Another luxury yacht maker, UK-based Sunseeker, was also fined in late 2024 for the use of Myanmar teak. Both Sunseeker and Oceanco have described their breaches as unintentional, with Sunseeker citing a lapse in due diligence.