re:imagine

Elodie Delonca is the CEO of Triton Timber, the company that recovers underwater wood, whole trees from forests lost beneath reservoirs, and brings it back into use. At Decorex London 2026 she joined Re:claimed to launch The Submerged Wood Collection in the UK for the first time.

In this conversation she explains how underwater wood differs from sunken wood, why reclaimed tropical hardwood deserves a second look, and how its origin is proven.

What follows is drawn from her talks at Decorex, lightly edited for reading. We will add to it as the conversation continues.

Elodie, could you introduce Triton and its collaboration with Re:claimed?

I am here to present Triton Collections and the new collaboration between Re:claimed, the UK specialist in reclaimed wood, and Triton, the specialist in reclaimed underwater wood.

We are here at Decorex London to launch, for the first time ever on the UK market, an unprecedented new material: reclaimed underwater wood, harvested in French Guiana.

Triton is the world leader in underwater wood harvesting, and in the supply of reclaimed underwater wood all over the world.

Where does Triton’s underwater wood come from?

French Guiana is really a piece of France on top of Brazil. Back in 1994, to power up the European space programme, it was decided to flood more than 36,000 hectares of rainforest. We are really talking about prime Amazonian rainforest. That created the biggest artificial lake in Europe, because French Guiana is France and, by design, it is Europe.

Triton estimates that around 9 million cubic metres of timber are available in the lake.

Why did you decide to set up Triton?

We come from one statement. Studies show that there are around one billion trees lost at the bottom of reservoirs across the globe, and French Guiana is five million of them. We consider that by harvesting these lost resources, by bringing them back to life, by reclaiming them, we offer a new sustainable solution to relieve the pressure on terrestrial forests.

What is the difference between underwater wood and sunken wood?

The difference is really crucial. Underwater wood is standing trees that were there, and that were killed by being flooded when major hydroelectric projects across the world were filled up.

Sunken trees are terrestrial trees that were cut on purpose on land and then put in the water, most of the time in rivers, to be preserved and better conserved.

So sunken wood comes from live trees that were cut on purpose. Underwater reclaimed wood comes from standing trees that were killed when reservoirs were flooded decades ago, and through a diligent and innovative way of harvesting, Triton Timber is able to bring them back and give them a second life.

We look at how submerged wood, sunken wood and bog oak differ in a separate guide.

What does The Submerged Wood Collection include?

I am very proud to present The Submerged Wood Collection, and to bring to the UK interior design market, and to the outdoor durability market, a completely traceable and sustainable new material. We are talking about more than 25 tropical hardwood species that are prime material for any responsible exterior and interior design project and, by extension, for furniture-making.

When we talk about underwater reclaimed material, what are we really talking about? A rough product? A green product? A finished product? The good news with Triton is that the answer is all of them at the same time. We have a fully industrial facility right by the lake shore in French Guiana, where we can process underwater reclaimed wood according to customer needs.

We can supply raw material, green slabs, which would be the perfect input for table-making. Following the same diligence and the same production process, we can equally supply outdoor decking. Mother Nature is fairly generous with us in French Guiana, so we can supply underwater reclaimed ipe decking and underwater reclaimed massaranduba decking, a new solution for exterior designers building terraces and big outdoor projects.

On the interior design side, we are lucky enough to bring light-coloured tropical hardwood to the market. With more than 25 different species, we can meet the recommendations of project managers, interior designers and architects, and their scope of works, to fit tones, grades and colours, as well as mechanical, structural and durability criteria.

Can reclaimed tropical hardwood be a responsible choice?

Some of you are interior designers, so I'm pretty sure that when you hear “tropical hardwood”, you have a bit of a reaction. That's my day-to-day life. As soon as I talk about reclaiming wood from the water, everything goes fine. When I start getting into the technicalities, that it comes from the Amazon, because this is where we started from and this is what it is, I get the reaction: we don't use that.

Why? Because tropical hardwood is associated with a very high carbon footprint, with illegal deforestation, with illegal human labour. So it became a bit of the black sheep of materials, and it moved completely away from the essence of what tropical hardwood is, let alone underwater tropical hardwood: naturally durable, mechanically resistant, with specifications that are incomparable and that cannot be replaced or substituted by other types of products.

For us, that's the myth we have to deconstruct. And yes, it's tropical. It's tropical because the lake is in the tropics.

How do you prove where underwater wood comes from?

My job as a supplier, and my job as a responsible provider, is to confirm that when I say to you that it's underwater wood from French Guiana, harvested in an environmentally compliant way, this is the truth.

When the time comes to prove what you do, you open up the Pandora's box of labels and certifications. My wood does not exist under the certification schemes, because nobody has ever thought about classifying underwater wood lost at the bottom of a reservoir as part of them. So when you are in discussion with an architect who is getting super excited about the product, and then you enter the scoping phase, you don't tick the box. Humility, example 101. I don't tick the box, and it's going to take ten years for me to get that little box.

So how do you work? That's where you really get back to people. There is not a one-size-fits-all definition of sustainability, and there is not a one-size-fits-all definition of traceability. When you are genuinely aligned on a common interest in working with each other, you get to the bottom of it. We both need to find a path where we are 100% comfortable that when you promote your flooring as underwater reclaimed wood from the Amazon, you are able to prove it.

That's what we are building at the moment. We have a certificate of origin from the French Forestry Ministry to prove where it comes from, and we are working with different international providers to cover the rest of the chain of custody. But it really comes from a B2B encounter, a discussion between people about where the common ground is.

The Submerged Wood Collection is available exclusively in the UK through Re:claimed, for projects from 2027. Discover the collection, download the catalogue or request material samples.