Commodity report

Broadleaved forest resources of the world
Broadleaved logs - supply, processing and product use

Hardwoods - world supply and demand (with emphasis on. tropical species) Part 1.

A paper prepared by S.L. PRINGLE, Chief, Forest Economics Branch, FAO Forestry and Forest Industries Division, for the Conference on Tropical Hardwoods held at Syracuse, U.S.A., 18-21 August 1969, organized by the Forest Extension Department of the Syracuse State University of Forestry. Although the paper draws heavily on FAO material, both published and unpublished, the ideas expressed are not necessarily those of the Organization

Certain broadleaved species have long been used for special purposes where their characteristics of durability, hardness and, sometimes beauty have given them accepted roles, often of distinction, in the manufacture of fine furniture, and as flooring, wall panelling, finished trim and for certain general construction uses. Here numerous temperate species, oaks, maples, birches, walnut, cherry, chestnut, eucalypts, etc., have long been important while tropical species such as true mahogany, African mahogany, rosewood, teak and greenheart have been traditional in world trade.

In recent decades, however, technological developments, notably with veneer, plywood and blackboard, have favoured the use of certain broadleaved species, usually of lighter and softer woods and generally in large logs, both as substitutes for the traditional hardwoods and for much more general uses, often replacing coniferous species and a few desirable utility hardwoods of temperate zones such as beech. Among the woods which have experienced rapid growth in use are lauan and moranti (a wide group of dipterocarp species), okoumé obeche and utile.

As demand pressures have become greater on the supply of coniferous woods and shortage problems have developed in the supply of temperate hardwoods which may often be of small size and bad form, the industrialized countries of the temperate regions have turned more and more to the broadleaved species of tropical regions. This paper considers the role that broadleaved woods, especially those from the tropics, has played and may be expected to play in meeting the world's needs for industrial wood.

The current removals of wood from the world's forests for all purposes are recorded at more than 2 000 million cubic metres. Of this about 45 percent, is used for fuelwood, while removals of industrial wood for sawlogs, veneer logs, pulpwood, poles, posts, etc., amount to 1 165 million cubic metres. Since 1950, expansion of industrial wood removals has been at the rate of about 2.8 percent per year (Table 1).

The FAO study, Wood -- world trends and prospects,¹ presented to the World Forestry Congress in 1966, estimated that from a 1961 base of 1 054 million cubic metres - including use of some 21 million cubic metres from residues -- industrial wood requirements would grow to 1 495 million cubic metres of removals and residues by 1975. Subsequent regional studies, although indicating some changes of detail, do not suggest that this projection need be substantially adjusted. Thus the expected future average annual expansion in industrial wood requirements is in the order of 2.5 percent, somewhat faster than the 2 percent foreseen for the world's, population growth rate in this period.

(¹ Unasylva, Vol. 20(1 - 2), Nos. 80-81, 1966. Also issued as FFHC Basic Study No. 16, FAO, Rome, Italy, 1967)

Table 1 shows the development of wood removals from the world's forests by major use categories, while Table 2 shows similar data for the broadleaved species alone. It may be seen that both for all species and for the broadleaved ones, considerable growth has occurred in all use categories but that, in general, the expansion was more rapid for the hardwoods.

TABLE 1. - WORLD ROUNDWOOD REMOVALS

	1950	1960	1967	Increase 1950-67
	Million. M³			Percent
Total	1442	1 907	2 097	45
Fuelwood	716	878	931	30
Industrial wood	726	1 029	1 166	60
Sawlogs, veneer logs, etc.	445	66 L	707	69
Pulpwood, pitprops, etc.	171	256	296	73
Miscellaneous	110	123	163	48

SOURCE: FAO, Yearbook of forest products statistics and revisions.

Currently, broadleaved or hardwood species make up more than four fifths of fuelwood used but account for little more than one quarter of industrial wood. However, as can be seen in Table 3, this proportion has been growing rapidly, especially for pulping, a use which had traditionally favoured coniferous species. Figures for fuelwood are perhaps spurious because improved estimates of fuelwood uses in the developing countries of the tropics suggest a growth of broadleaved wood for this purpose more rapid than actual developments. Nevertheless, in industrialized areas, the diversion of lower quality coniferous wood to pulping and to manufacture of board products has actually led to broadleaved species becoming relatively more important in fuelwood.

TABLE 2. - WORLD BROADLEAVED ROUNDWOOD REMOVALS

	1950	1960	1967	Increase 1950-67
	Million m³			Percent
Total	690	958	1091	58
Fuelwood	530	700	771	46
Industrial wood	160	268	320	100
Sawlogs, veneer logs, etc.	97	163	191	97
Pulpwood, pitprops, etc.	19	44	70	268
Miscellaneous	44	51	69	24

SOURCE: FAO, Yearbook of forest products statistics and revisions.

TABLE 3. - WORLD BROADLEAVED ROUNDWOOD REMOVALS, AS A PERCENTAGE OF ALL REMOVALS

	1 950	1960	1967
	Percent
Total	48	50	52
Fuelwood	74	80	83
Industrial wood	22	26	27
Sawlogs, veneer logs, etc.	22	25	27
Pulpwood, pitprops, etc.	11	17	24
Miscellaneous	40	41	36

As can be seen in Table 4, which shows the source of all broadleaved removals by region of origin, the bulk of hardwoods for industrial uses is obtained from the mixed forests of the temperate regions- 70 percent of the 1967 supply. However, important changes have been taking place. The expansion in tropical broadleaved removals from 1953 to 1967 is shown in Table 5. In this 14-year period total removals of this group increased by 40 percent while industrial removals nearly doubled. Despite the simultaneous rapid expansion of broadleaved removals in temperate countries - 147 million to 225 million cubic metres in the industrial category-the share of all broadleaved wood supplied by the tropical countries expanded substantially in all product categories. The growth was especially noticeable in the case of logs where the share increased from 30 to 38 percent.

TABLE 4. BROADLEAVED ROUNDWOOD REMOVALS BY MAJOR CLIMATIC REGIONS, 1967

	Total	Fuel-wood	Industrial wood
			Total	Logs	Pulp wood, pitprops	Miscellaneous
	Million m³
World	1 091	771	320	191	71	68
Predominantly temperate countries	451	226	225	119	64	42
Predominantly tropical countries	640	545	95	72	7	16

TABLE 5. - BROADLEAVED ROUNDWOOD REMOVALS IN TROPICAL COUNTRIES, AS A PERCENTAGE OF WORLD REMOVALS

	1953	1967	1953	1967
	Million m³		Percent
Total	462	640	53	69
Fuelwood	410	545	62	71
Industrial wood	51	95	26	30
Logs	40	72	30	38
Pulpwood, etc	2	7	6	10
Miscellaneous	10	16	26	28

Thus, three distinct trends are obvious on a world basis:

1. the amount of wood required for industrial purposes (and probably for fuelwood) is increasing;
2. an increasing proportion of the wood harvested is of broadleaved species;
3. an increasing proportion of the broadleaved wood is coming from tropical forests.

Despite the rapid growth in the use of broadleaved pulpwood, logs for sawnwood, veneer and for sleepers still accounted, in 1967, for three fifths of the industrial wood in this species group. For the tropical broadleaved species, the log component made up three quarters of the industrial wood total. In view of this relative importance, special attention is here given to the log category.

But, before proceeding with this analysis, the pattern of the world's forest resource will be examined with respect to the broadleaved or hardwood component.

Broadleaved forest resources of the world

An appraisal of the world's broadleaved forest resources and their role in supplying the world's wood requirements should of course define these forests, locate them, and estimate their areas and the volumes which they contain. The rapidly growing demands for the broadleaved species make it extremely important that this information be available, not only in detail for planning silvicultural and harvesting operations, but also for the broad analyses needed as tools in policy formulation. Unfortunately, even in general terms, the information is not readily available for two reasons. First, there are still vast forest areas which have not been surveyed or inventoried and only educated guesses can be made. Secondly, there is the inherent problem of the extent and quantity of this resource constantly being reduced through exploitation and land clearing on the one hand, and augmented by growth and by natural and artificial regeneration on the other. Thus the estimates of the world's hardwood forest resources shown here should only be viewed as broad indications of magnitude. However, the figures are valuable in their general indications and for comparative purposes.

The estimates have been derived from a number of fairly recent reviews of the situation completed by FAO. Since no study has been precisely oriented toward the broadleaved forest resource, the compilation given here is a mosaic of estimates of a very diverse nature and accuracy. These have been derived from reports which have treated both coniferous and broadleaved forests, often not distinguishing between the two to the extent needed to permit an assessment of the world's hardwood resource.

Table 6 shows estimates, for the eight world regions, of areas of broadleaved forests in comparison with those of all forests and with total land area. Although the broadleaved forest category in Table 6 includes areas of mixed forests which also contain conifers, the distortion is of minor importance for the regions in which the broadleaved forests predominate, namely Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Pacific. In each of these four regions, broadleaved forests make up from 82 to 99 percent of the total forest area, with mixed forests contributing only negligible amounts to the totals. About one third of the broadleaved forest resources of the world are in the Latin American region. The three regions of South America, Africa and Asia, taken together, include about 75 percent of the' world's broadleaved forests. It is also worthwhile noting that the total area of broadleaved forests in these three regions is estimated at 1 876 million hectares, or about 51 percent of a total of 3 704 million hectares of all the world's forests, both coniferous and broadleaved.

Table 6 also shows estimates of the growing stock of broadleaved forests in the several regions. These estimates should be treated with considerable caution since they have been derived by multiplying volume per hectare (determined from information from only those portions of the region for which growing stock is estimated) by the estimated area of all broadleaved forests. Thus they are extrapolations of partial information and, hence, are apt to be inaccurate in some cases. The total growing stock for all the world's broadleaved forests is estimated in this way at about 267 000 million cubic metres. The most important conclusions derivable from the growing stock estimates are -the relative quantities found in the regions. It is clear that the region having far and away the greatest volume of broadleaved species is South America which has about 57 percent of the total. This region is followed by Asia and Africa which together comprise "4 percent of the total. Thus, these three regions contain over 80 percent of the standing volume of broadleaved species.

Since these three regions form the major reservoir of the world's broadleaved forest resource, they warrant a closer consideration at this time. Additionally, they are the regions where less information has been generally available. In contrast, North America, Europe and the U.S.S.R. together have an estimated 16 percent of the world's broadleaved forests but, because of the proximity of these forests to industrial and population centres, they have been operated for many years and information on their extent, composition, and quantity although imperfect is much more complete and is more readily available. Consequently, they will receive little attention here.

TABLE 6. - WORLD'S BROADLEAVED FOREST RESOURCES¹

LATIN AMERICA

The broadleaved forests of Latin America can be classified into the major formations of:

1. tropical rain or wet evergreen forest;
2. moist deciduous forest;
3. dry deciduous forest;
4. savanna;
5. temperate broadleaved forest;
6. mangrove forest.

The most extensive of these formations is the wet evergreen or tropical rain forest which covers upward of 400 million hectares in the deltas and tributary drainages of the Amazon and Orinoco rivers, in certain coastal areas and foothills of Mexico, Central America, the Guianas, Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil, and in the tributaries of the River Plate. One can say that about half of the gross forest resource of Latin America is in the forests of the Amazon basin in this forest formation. For all practical purposes, it has hardly been touched by any utilization.

A complete list of species in these forests would run into several hundreds. Only a small number of them are presently of major commercial importance. Gross stocking varies within wide limits although the average is probably around 200 to 300 cubic metres per hectare.

In the moist deciduous forest, both broadleaved and coniferous species occur although the number of species is more limited than in the tropical rain forest. This formation is estimated to cover close to 80 million hectares in southwest Mexico, the western slopes of Central America, the islands of the West Indies, in northern Colombia and Venezuela, on the eastern slopes of the Andes down to Argentina, and in parts of Brazil. Stocking in these forests runs from about 200 to 300 cubic metres per hectare.

The dry deciduous and savanna formations are composed mainly of broadleaved species. The forests are open and the trees short and badly formed. These forests cover a vast area of about 400 million hectares in Mexico, Central America, northeast and central Brazil, the dry interior valleys of the Andes of Bolivia, in Peru and northern Chile, and in the Chaco region of Bolivia, Paraguay, and Argentina. Stocking is low, ranging between 20 and 50 cubic metres per hectare.

Temperate broadleaved forests occur in Chile and Argentina covering about 16 million hectares. These forests have been heavily exploited and have also suffered from extensive destruction due to grazing and fire. In the undisturbed forest, volumes run from about 200 to 400 cubic metres per hectare.

AFRICA

Africa has about 16 percent of the total forest area of the world. Of the approximate 680 million hectares, almost 99 percent is made up of broadleaved forests in several forest formations which have been classified as:

1. moist forest at low and medium altitudes;
2. tropical montane (and temperate and subtropical evergreen forest in southern Africa);
3. savanna woodlands;
4. dry deciduous forest;
5. wooded steppes;
6. mangroves;
7. Mediterranean forest types.

The tropical moist forests are evergreen or semi-deciduous and are made up entirely of broadleaved species. These forests cover about 180 million hectares, principally in western Africa from Sierra Leone to Angola and in Madagascar. These are the forests which yield the renowned export woods of the African continent. In primary or old secondary forests, the total volume including branches may run up to 300 cubic metres per hectare. Of this total, only about 80 cubic metres have a presently potential use and actually only between 5 and 20 cubic metres and rarely up to 40 cubic metres per hectare are harvested.

Tropical montane forests which contain some coniferous species cover about 10 million hectares, mainly in eastern Africa. These forests are made up of trees of less height and growing stock than in the moist forest formations.

A characteristic of the African region is the prevalence of dry forest types. Savanna woodlands, together with wooded steppes, comprise about 460 million hectares, or about 68 percent of the total area classified as forest in Africa. The many forest types composing this formation are made up entirely of broadleaved species. Savanna woodlands have volumes per hectare ranging from 50 to 100 cubic metres per hectare. Wooded steppes represent a transition to desert or sub-desert, and are characterized by wide spacing between stunted trees with less volume per hectare.

Dry deciduous forests are composed entirely of broadleaved species, some of high commercial value. They occur in Zambia, Rhodesia, Botswana, Angola and Madagascar.

Mangroves occur in the river estuaries of the Atlantic and Indian oceans and cover an area of about 6 million hectares.

The Mediterranean forest types contain both conifers and broadleaved species. The broadleaved species are mainly oaks and maquis (Pistacia lentiscus) principally of local commercial importance for timber.

A few general observations are worthwhile. The forests of Africa cover about a quarter of the land area. Of this total, less than 200 million hectares consist of closed canopy or closed high forest of commercial importance, while the remainder is largely savanna woodlands. Approximately 90 percent of the closed high forest is in western Africa. Nearly al] of this forest is in the moist forest formation.

ASIA

The total area of forests for the Asian region is show-e in Table 6 as about 90 million hectares. Of this, 400 million hectares, or 82 percent, are classified as broadleaved. These 400 million hectares constitute around 16 percent of the world's broadleaved forest area.

The same classification system used for the Latin American region can describe these forests. Wet evergreen forests comprise about half of the total forest area and are composed entirely of broadleaved species. These forests reach their optimum development in continental and insular southeast Asia and also occur in parts of the Western Ghats of :India; the eastern Himalayas; the Khasya hills and Assam; as well as in parts of Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and the Republic of Viet-Nam. Numerous Dipterocarps of commercial importance are found in these forests.

Moist deciduous forests are widely distributed in the region: in India as a strip along the eastern slopes of the Western Ghats, the foothills of the Himalayas; and in Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and New Guinea. This formation contains the most valuable stands of teak plus many miscellaneous broadleaved species, principally Dipterocarps. The sal forests of India and Nepal are also in this formation.

Dry deciduous forests, composed principally of Dipterocarps, extend over large areas in south and southeast Asia. The stands are open, the trees short, and these forests have low commercial value although they are of local importance for fuel and timber.

Mangrove forests occupy a belt of varying width along tropical marshy shores below high tide mark. These broadleaved forests are economically important as local sources of fuel, timber and poles.

Important temperate deciduous forests occur in east and south Asia, and New Zealand and Australia. The principal species are beech, oak, maple, chestnut, walnut, alder, elm and birch.

Natural eucalyptus forests are confined to Australia and are used extensively for timber and filer.

The estimate of total growing stock of broadleaved forests in the Asian region from Table 6 is 36 000 million cubic metres. Timber trends and prospects in the Asia-Pacific region, published by FAO in 1961, estimated 16 200 million cubic metres for the growing stock of those forests classified as forest in use. These forests in use constituted 211 million hectares, or 43 percent; of the total forest area. Assuming the remaining forests not in use carry the same levels of growing stock, extrapolation yields an estimated growing, stock of 37 800 million cubic metres which agrees with the figure given in Table tit

This growing stock is distributed among the forest formation approximately as follows:

	Estimated volume Million m³	Percent
Tropical evergreen forest.	'27 700	77
Tropical deciduous forest	5 800	16
Mangrove forest	700	2
Temperate broadleaved forest	1 800	5
.	36 000

MAN- MADE FORESTS

The quantity of wood from naturally occurring broadleaved forests is being constantly augmented by planted or man-made forests of broadleaved species.

Of the broadleaved species used for plantation establishment, the many species of Eucalyptus are the most widely planted. ['here are now about 2 million hectares of Eucalyptus plantations, principally in Latin America (900 000 hectares) and Africa (600 000 :hectares). Poplars are also being planted in increasing numbers, especially in the southern part of Europe.

In tropical areas the most important broadleaved species used for plantation establishment is teak. There are now about 1 million hectares of teak plantations in Indonesia and Burma, with smaller areas in EL number of other tropical countries. Plantations of other tropical broadleaved species in demand for peeling and sawing are also beginning to be established in order to ensure future supplies.

Some information is available regarding the extension of broadleaved forest plantations in Latin America and Africa. In the former the 900 000 hectares of Eucalyptus plantations are distributed approximately as follows:

	Area of plantations Thousand ha
Brazil	560
Argentina	100
Uruguay	100
Chile	50
Other countries	90
	900

In addition, about 1.50 000 hectares of poplars and willows have been planted in Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile.

In the African region, about two thirds of the 2 million hectares of plantations, or about 1340 000 hectares, consist of broadleaved species, principally Eucalyptus and wattle. These are distributed as shown below:

	Area of plantations Thousand ha
West Africa	180
East Africa	400
North Africa	220
Southern Africa	540
	1 340

Broadleaved logs - supply, processing and product use

The growing importance of broadleaved species in all major categories of wood use, and especially as pulpwood, has already been pointed out in this paper. However, logs still remain by far the most important category of industrial use of hardwoods, and it is in this category that tropical species show both their greatest relative importance and their most rapid growth.

This section will explore on a regional basis the source of supply of broadleaved logs and the flow of these logs through manufacture processing to consumption of the processed products.

SOURCE OF BROADLEAVED LOGS

An examination of the source of broadleaved logs for sawing, veneer and sleepers shown in Table 7 is quite revealing. During the period 1953 to 1967, world removals in this category increased from 133 to 191 million cubic metres, an increase of 58 million cubic metres or 3 percent. Temperate countries accounted for only 26 million cubic metres of the increase as their removals grew by 28 percent, with Europe alone accounting for half the expansion. Growth in most other temperate regions was marginal except for Japan where broadleaved log removals expanded by 4 million cubic metres to reach nearly 7 million cubic metres.

TABLE 7.-REMOVALS OF BROADLEAVED LOGS, 1953 AND 1967

	1953	1967	1953-67
	Million cubic metres
World	133	191	58
Predominantly temperate countries	93	119	26
Europe	21	34	13
U.S.S.R.	17	21	4
North America	37	40	3
China (Mainland)	6	7	1
Other temperate Asia .	4	8	4
All others¹	9	8	0
Predominantly tropical countries	40	72	32
Central America	2	3	1
South America	15	17	2
Africa	6	12	6
Tropical Asia and Pacific	17	40	23

SOURCE: ´FAO, Yearbook of forest products statistics and revisions.
NOTE: Totals do not always add because of rounding.
¹ Australia, New Zealand, north Africa, Chile.

In the tropical countries removals in this category expanded by 80 percent from 40 to 72 million cubic metres. Central and South America had only a modest increase while removals continued to expand spectacularly in Africa and especially in the Asia-Pacific area.

These two regions accounted for a combined growth of 29 million cubic metres from the 1953 level of 23 million cubic metres.

This rapidly changing supply pattern for broadleaved logs raises the question of whether the tropical areas can continue to provide for the expansion in the world's requirements for this material, offsetting the slowing growth of output from temperate areas. Particular attention must be paid to whether temperate regions must be limited to the more modest growth of broadleaved log removals they have shown in recent years, whether the heavily exploited forests of west Africa can continue to provide increasing supplies, whether the islands and peninsulas of southeast Asia, already providing more than one fifth of the world's hardwood logs, are not being mined at a rate which foretells future decline and to whether the vast resources of the Amazon must continue to lie idle. These queries raise considerations of many more detailed problems: the availability of resource data, the great volumes of numerous species not yet accepted commercially, the pattern of present and future processing and consumption.

INTERNATIONAL LOG TRADE

Not only have the sources of broadleaved logs changed in the past decade or two, but also the proportion of these logs, at least those originating in the tropics, which have entered into international trade, has increased rapidly. As can be seen from Table 8, exports of tropical broadleaved logs were, in 1967, fivefold what they had been in 1953 and accounted for nearly one third of all broadleaved log removals. The great bulk of the expansion took place in southeast Asia, but African exports also increased rapidly.

TABLE 8. -EXPORTS OF BROADLEAVED LOGS, 1953 AND 1967

	1953	1967	Increase 1953-67
	Million. cubic metres
Word	5.2 (3 5%)	24.8(13%)	19.6
Predominantly temperate countries .	0.7 (0.8%)	1.8 (1.5%)	1.1
Europe.	0.4	1.2	0.8
U.S.S.R	-	0.1	0.1
North America	0.2	0. 5	0.3
China (Mainland)	-	-
Other temperate Asia	-	-
All others	-	-
Predominantly tropical countries	4.4 (11%)	22.9 (32%)	18.5
Central America	0.1	-	-0.1
South America	0.2	0.4	0.2
Africa	1.8 (25%)	5.3 (44%)	3.5
Tropical Asia and Pacific	2.3 (13%)	17.2 (44%)	14.9

SOURCE: FAO, Yearbook of forest products statistics and revisions.
NOTE: Bracket figures show exports as percentage of removals.

TABLE 9. - MAJOR TRADE FLOWS OF BROADLEAVED LOGS, 1967

Very little of the temperate hardwood log harvest enters international trade and most of this does not move interregionally. In 1967, removals of temperate broadleaved logs, as shown in Table 4, were 119 million cubic metres while, as can be seen in Table 9, only 1.8 million cubic metres entered international trade, and this was largely restricted to internal movement within Europe and within North America. Small quantities were exported from North America to Europe, from eastern Europe to the U.S.S.R. and from the U.S.S.R. to Japan. In contrast, when broadleaved log removals in the same year were 72 million cubic metres, 23.2 million cubic metres were exported and only a small portion of this, 1.6 million cubic metres, stayed within the producing tropical region and even 1.3 million cubic metres were for processing in Singapore, largely for export. Of the 21.6 million cubic metres of logs exported from tropical to temperate areas, 4.8 million cubic metres moved from west Africa to Europe, and 15.7 million cubic metres from southeast Asia and the Pacific islands to east Asia - largely Japan, China (Taiwan) and the Republic of Korea. Relatively small quantities have been exported from the tropics to North America, Australia, Israel and Lebanon.

MANUFACTURE OF SAWNWOOD, VENEER AND PLYWOOD

The production of broadleaved sawnwood is shown by region in Table 10. Over this 14-year period world production expanded by about 28 million cubic metres (s), an increase of 48 percent. In general, the rate of expansion was more rapid in the temperate areas than in the tropical areas. The most spectacular increase occurred in east Asia which has depended heavily on imported logs for its production expansion. Europe and the U.S.S.R. both expansion substantial increases. Some of the expansion in the :former may have been based on imported logs. In the tropical regions it was southeast Asia which brought about the great bulk of the increase.

It is not readily possible to separate the production in the temperate regions of sawnwood made from tropical logs as this log supply supplements domestic logs and wood from either or both of these sources may also be used for the production of veneer and plywood.

TABLE 10.- PRODUCTION OF BROADLEAVED SAWNWOOD,¹ 1953 and 1967

	1953	1967	Increase 1953-1967
	Million cubic metres (s)
World	58.5	86.4	27.9
Predominantly temperate countries	44.9	67.4	22.5
Europe .	9.6	16.4	6.8
U.S.S.R.	10.0	16.4	6.4
North America.	18.3	18.2	-0.1
China (Mainland)	2.7	4.6	1.9
Other temperate Asia	1.2	8.4	7.2
All others²	3.2	3.4	0.2
Predominantly tropical countries	13.6	18.8	5.2
Central America	0.7	0.8	0.1
South America	5.7	6.0	0.3
Africa	1.2	2.1	0.9
Tropical Asia and Pacific	5.9	9.9	4.0

SOURCE: FAO, Yearbook of forest products statistics and revisions.
¹ Excludes some broadleaved sleepers. - ² Australia, New Zealand north Africa, Chile.

TABLE 11. - PRODUCTION OF PLYWOOD,¹ 1953 AND 1967

	1953	1967	Increase 1953-67
	Million cubic metres
World	8.2 (3.8)	26.3 (11.8)	18.1 (8.0)
Predominantly temperate countries	7.9 (3 5)	25.0 (10.5)	17.1 (7.0)
Europe	1.5 (1.5)	3.4 (3.4)	1.9 (1 9)
U.S.S.R	0.9	1.8	0.9
North America .	4.9 (1 5)	14.9 (2.2)	10.0 (0.7)
China (Mainland)	-	0.1 (0.1)	0.1 (0.1)
Other temperate Asia	0.4 (0.4)	4.6 (4.6)	4.2 (4.2)
All others²	0.1 (0.1)	0.2 (0.2)	0.1 (0.1)
Predominantly tropical countries	0. 3 (0.3)	1.3 (1 3)	1.0 (1.0)
Central America	- (-)	0.1 (0.1)	0.1 (0.1)
South America	0.1 (0.1)	0 4 (0.4)	0 3 (0.3)
Africa	0.1 (0.1)	0.2 (0.2)	0.1 (0.1)
Tropical Asia and Pacific	0.1 (0.1)	0 6 (0. 6)	0 5 (0. 5)

SOURCE: FAO, Yearbook of forest products statistics and revisions, national reports.
¹Estimates of broadleaved production are shown in brackets. -
² Australia, New Zealand, north Africa, Chile.

A special study on tropical timber use in Europe² estimates that in 1965 the use of tropical logs for sawnwood was in the range of 1.3 to 1.7 million cubic metres out of the tropical log import of 5.4 million cubic metres. This would represent only about 5 percent of the total log intake for broadleaved sawnwood production.³

(² Study on the consumption of tropical hardwoods in Europe, Supplement 9 to Vol. XIX of the Timber bulletin for Europe, FAO/ECE, 1967.
(³ See also Europe's hardwood resources, and trends and prospects in their utilization, FAO /ECE Secretariat paper presented to the ECE Symposium on the Industrial Processing of Temperate-Zone Hardwoods, Czechoslovakia, 1969.)

It is even more difficult to sort out the hardwood and tropical hardwood portions of plywood and veneer production. Although some countries maintain separate records of plywood production by the type of raw material (coniferous, temperate broadleaved, tropical broadleaved) used, there are, as yet, no world statistics on this basis. There are, of course, instances where plywood (and blackboard, which is included in the FAO plywood data) is manufactured from two or even three of these wood categories. Production statistics on veneer for use other than in plywood are particularly difficult to compile even for a country. Hence on a world basis it is not possible to present a production picture of plywood and veneer production for even broadleaved plywoods, let alone for tropical broadleaved products. Plywood production of all species is shown in Table 11. World expansion in plywood production has been vigorous in the 14 years up to 1967, with an increase of 220 percent, or 8 1/2 percent per year. Well over half of the 18.1 million cubic metre increase has resulted from the growth in North America which was based predominantly on coniferous species. The European growth, considerably more modest than the world average, largely resulted from the expansion of the Finnish birch industry and from production based on increased imports of tropical logs, particularly to EEC countries. It has been estimated that in 1965 about 2.3 million cubic metres and 1.4 million cubic metres of tropical logs were used for plywood and veneer respectively, out of total log consumption of 7.5 million and 3.1 million cubic metres.

Development of the industry has been particularly rapid in Japan, China (Taiwan) and the Republic of Korea so that east Asia now accounts for the major portion of broadleaved plywood production. This industry is predominantly based on imported logs from the South Seas. The rate of growth in production has also been quite rapid in most of the tropical areas although the total volume is still relatively small. Here production is almost solely of broadleaved species.

INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN PROCESSED BROADLEAVED PRODUCTS

As can be seen in Table 12, exports of broadleaved sawnwood more than doubled in the period 1953 to 1967, with two thirds of the increase from European and from tropical Asian countries. Africa, North America and east Asia accounted for nearly all the remaining one third. Among all broadleaved sawnwood exports the share of those originating in the tropical countries increased from 40 to 45 percent. The directions of the 1967 trade flows are shown in Table 13. This indicates that, out of the 5.9 million cubic metres exported, 3.0 million cubic metres were traded between temperate countries largely within Europe and within North America and a further 0.7 million cubic metres within the tropical regions. Very little moved from temperate to tropical countries, but considerable quantities were exported from west Africa and southeast Asia to Europe and some from all the tropical regions to North America. Total tropical to temperate area flow was 1.8 million cubic metres.

TABLE 12. - EXPORTS OF BROADLEAVED SAWNWOOD, 1953 AND 1967

	1953	1967	Increase 1953-67
	Million cubic metres
World	2.8	5.9	3.1
Predominantly temperate countries	1.8	3.2	1.6
Europe	1.0	2.0	1.0
U.S.S.R.	-	-	-
North America	0.5	0.8	0.3
China (Mainland)	-	-	-
Other temperate Asia	0.1	0.4	0.3
All others ¹ .	0.2	0.1	-0.1
Predominantly tropical countries	1.1	2.6	1.5
Central America	0.1	0.1	-
South America	0.1	0.2	0.1
Africa	0.3	0.7	0.4
Tropical Asia and Pacific	0.6	1.6	1.0

SOURCE: FAO, Yearbook of forest products statistics and revisions.
¹ Australia, New Zealand, north Africa, Chile.

TABLE 13. - MAJOR TRADE FLOWS OF BROADLEAVED SAWNWOOD, 1967

As with production, the data for veneer and plywood export are not available on a world basis by type of wood species. Nevertheless, much detail is available from country trade records and can be used to estimate broadleaved trade.

Although the unit value of veneer sheets exported is very high the quantities are not great --less than 1 million cubic metres. One quarter of all that entering international trade originates in the Philippines. Canada and west Africa are also important exporters. More than half of the total goes to the United States. Europe imports the bulk of the remainder. Most veneer which is exported is of broadleaved species.

Table 14 shows the development of trade in all plywood. The world exports had increased by 1967 to six times the 1953 level. The growth has resulted from developments in several regions. European exports have expanded considerably but consist largely of intra-regional movements - notably birch plywood from Finland largely to the United Kingdom and plywood of tropical species among several countries of western Europe. North American exports, largely of coniferous plywood from Canada to the United Kingdom, also expanded considerably. But the most striking development was the growth of tropical plywood exports from southeast and east Asia, especially the Philippines and from Japan, China (Taiwan) and the Republic of Korea based on imported logs particularly from the Philippines and east Malaysia.

Table 15 presents an estimate of the flow of plywood from broadleaved species only. It must be recognized that it is only approximate because of the lack of available detail. It will be noted that a great deal of the trade is within the temperate region and that a good deal of this is internal movement within Europe. However, the flow from east Asia to North America makes up more than a third of all broadleaved plywood trade as here estimated. The southeast Asia to North America flow makes up another tenth or so of the total. The very rapid expansion of United States imports of broadleaved plywood which occurred in 1968 is of course not reflected in these levels. Imports of that year were nearly twice those of 1964 and have probably resulted in considerable change in the total pattern of trade flow.

TABLE :14. - EXPORTS OF PLYWOOD (ALL SPECIES), 1953 AND 1967

	1953	1967	Increase 1953-67
	Million cubic metres
World	0.53	3.12	2.69
Predominantly temperate countries	0.48	2.61	2.13
Europe	0.33	0.93	0.60
U.S.S.R.	0.05	0.21	0.16
North America	0.04	0.46	0.42
China (Mainland)	-	0.01	0.01
Other temperate Asia .	0.06	0.93	0.87
All others¹	-	0.07	0.07
Predominantly tropical countries	0.05	0.51	0.46
Central America	-	0.01	0.01
South America	0.01	0.02	0.01
Africa	0 04	0.10	0.06
Tropical Asia and Pacific	-	0.38	0.38

SOURCE FAO, Yearbook of forest products statistics and revisions.
¹Australia, New Zealand, north Africa, Chile.

TABLE 15. - ESTIMATED MAJOR TRADE FLOWS IN BROADLEAVED PLYWOOD, 1967