The most dominant tropical and sub-tropical hardwood plantation species is the genus Eucalyptus (30.8 percent) followed by the genus Acacia (12.1 percent) and then teak, T. grandis (7 perecnt) - see Table 2 (FAO 1997). The “other hardwoods” make up 43 percent of the area and consists of species with unspecified area, or less extensively planted, or native species. About 90 percent of these plantations are in Asia and many species of this group are of industrial value (FAO 1997).
Table 2: Net areas of tropical and sub-tropical hardwood plantations by species (1995)
|
Species |
% all tropical plantations |
% tropical hardwood plantations |
Net Area (103 ha) |
|
Acacia auriculiformis |
1.4 |
2.3 |
758 |
|
Acacia mangium |
0.8 |
1.4 |
454 |
|
Acacia mearnsii |
0.6 |
1.0 |
325 |
|
Other acacias |
4.2 |
7.3 |
2 367 |
|
Casuarina species |
1.4 |
2.4 |
787 |
|
Dalbergia sissoo* |
1.1 |
1.9 |
626 |
|
Eucalyptus species |
17.7 |
30.8 |
9 950 |
|
Gmelina arborea |
0.7 |
1.3 |
418 |
|
Swetenia macrophylla* |
0.3 |
0.5 |
151 |
|
Terminalia species |
0.5 |
0.9 |
304 |
|
Tectona grandis* |
4 |
7.0 |
2 253 |
|
Other hardwoods |
24.7 |
43.1 |
13 921 |
|
TOTAL |
57.4** |
100.0 |
32 314 |
Source: FAO, 1997 * valuable hardwoods ** Total tropical plantations = c. 56.3 million ha.The three most widely planted high-valued hardwood species are Dalbergia sissoo (Rosewood), Swietenia macrophylla (Mahogany), and Teak (Table 2) and between them constitute about 10 percent of the global hardwood plantations. Teak is the most widely cultivated valuable hardwood. The regional distribution is given in Table 3.Due to rounding offs, sums may not tally
More than 90 percent of Teak plantations were located in Asia; mainly in Indonesia, India, Thailand, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Sri Lanka. Other locations with significant areas of Teak are parts of tropical America (mainly Costa Rica, Trinidad and Tobago) and tropical Africa (Nigeria, Cote D'Ivoire, Sudan, Ghana, Togo and Benin) (Keogh 1996).
About 95 percent of Rosewood plantations are located in India and Pakistan while Nepal and Bangladesh make up an additional four percent. Small plantations of this species are found in tropical Africa (Nigeria and Burkina Faso).
Table 3: Area distribution of major valuable hardwood plantations by region (1995). Areas are in thousands of hectares.
|
Species |
Region |
Total Area (103 ha) |
% |
|||
|
Africa |
Asia |
Oceania (excluding New Zealand & Australia) |
C. America |
|||
|
Teak |
110.0 |
2 108.0 |
3.4 |
33.1 |
2 254.5 |
74 |
|
Swietenia spp. |
5.5 |
106.4 |
33.9 |
5.5 |
151.3 |
5 |
|
Dalbergia spp. |
2.8 |
623.3 |
0 |
0 |
626.1 |
21 |
|
Total Area (ha.) |
118.3 |
2 837.7 |
37.3 |
38.6 |
3 031.9 |
100 |
|
% |
4 |
94 |
1 |
1 |
100 |
|
Source: FAO, 2000. * Area in thousands of hectares and due to rounding off, sums may not tally.The largest introduced mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla) plantations are located in Indonesia and Fiji, which together make up about 80 percent of the established area (FAO 2000). Other plantations are found in the Philippines (6 percent), Solomon Islands (3 percent) and Sri Lanka (2.5 percent). There are some relatively small plantations of African mahogany (Khaya senegalensis) in some African countries including Benin, Cameroon, Nigeria and Cote D'Ivoire (FAO 1997).
