Last Evening I found this interesting Article in The National Geographic Magazine's May'11 issue. It's amazing to see, how many lives does a Balsa Tree supports. And Simultaneously put me deep into thought process, that how selfish we are to use Balsa wood, with out thinking twice.

Though it is said, that most of the Balsa comes from Renewable sources, But I think not of all of it. Have a Look at this Video which I found on net about making of same article.
Think twice when you use Balsa, At least refrain from wasting it.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/05/panama-ochroma/panama-ochroma-video

Apart from the conservation point of view, I have found working with balsa  messy and time consuming.

Although, I am not in RC yet, I have shifted to making gliders from Biofoam.

Vishwas

That is not limitted to a balsa tree alone. Its with any tree and any form of wood that we use.

flylite balsa combo is practical

agree with rajath...... it is applicable for all trees....

you can say i am addicted to balsa planes and nitro engines.... though they are expensive and my self i am trying build from alternative material...

balsa is balsa.... nothing like it....

the most you can do is try not to waste... save it (all will try to save it as much as they can.. to save some cash)

I bet foam is equally harmful to the environment.

non biodegradable substance....

at-least we become nature friendly... ( not by harming but being pollution free... )

I think the foam can be recycled. I dont think same is true for wood. A tree can be converted to plane but not vice versa.

 

Akshay,
I would doubt any serious builder would waste any balsa. If not for the love of nature, you save every bit of it for the high price. I spend ample time on AutoCAD to optimize my layout for laser cutting.
 

Ujjwaana,
It gives me immense pleasure to observe that my post is creating bit awareness among the Indian Rcers, at least they are thinking of preserving a natural resource which is not unlimited and impact of wasting it is not only monetary, but environmental also. Think about animals who depend on Balsa trees not only for food but as their home. We can't destroy Balsa trees un limitedly for our Flying Pleasure.

This reminds me of Ivory which was used shamelessly by human race, in beginning of last century, and thousands of elephants were killed to procure it.

the balsa we use is grown to be cut.... ( like in the poultry the hens are reared to be killed....)

we dont get balsa which grows in the forest... its grown in the farms...
we grow rice on farms and eat it if we had to not cut it and keep it for the birds what would we eat...

what i mean to say is the balsa we use is grown in balsa farms and not cut from the equatorial rain forests...

I think no farm can keep pace with growing demand of Balsa World over, so lots and lots of Balsa comes from forests. Any ways farms also need land and that can be from shrinking forests.

If farms can keep pace with demand of teak than they can keep up with any other kind of wood.

debates are never ending and so is this... and every one is right from their point of view....

let there be opinions not debates... 

I dont think it makes any difference in flying characteristics with whatever material you build if the wingloading and powerloading is same across the build.
Agree that you can make model look aesthetic with balsa, but apart from beauty what else it can give? It will be like marrying a beautiful women and burning the pocket whole life  .
This is my opinion on a scale of 0-10, higher the better

                             Weight   Finish  Strength(crash)   Durability  Build Effort  Cost

BALSA                       8          7          6                    9                 3           3         36
Derpon+cf+taping        7          6          9                    8                 9           7         46
CORO + CF                 4          4          7                    9                 8           6         38
 
I know people may not agree with durability of foam plane, but how long you want to keep that model is a question. Most of my foam planes are still up and running since more than an year.

You gave way to many points to balsa for durability, other than that 

you cant keep balsa plane idle for more time the bonds loosen or some times debond from joints.....

not to mention termites rats and mice if you are living in old houses......