Analysis of Timber Supplier Selection and Domestic Timber Requirements of the Forest Products Industry in Taiwan

Over the last few decades, domestic timber has supplied a smaller portion of Japan’s wood consumption, which currently stands at approximately 110 million m3 per year. The country’s self-sufficiency in wood products has declined from almost 90% in 1960 to the current rate of slightly more than 20%. Domestic forestry and forest products industries have degraded because of competitiveness of imported products, high costs of harvesting and processing, and shortage of workers. On the other hand, imports of wood, predominantly in the form of logs, chips and other primary manufactured products, have grown from 6.3 million m3 in 1960 to 89.8 million m3 in 1996. The major suppliers have been traditionally the Pacific Northwest of the United States, British Columbia of Canada, Russian Far East, southeast Asian countries (mostly Malaysia and Indonesia), and Australia. Currently this supply structure is changing rapidly, as imports of logs from North America and Russia are declining, tropical hardwood sources are cut down, and imports of softwood products from new suppliers like New Zealand, Chile, and Nordic countries are increasing. At the same time, traditional as well as new suppliers are increasingly replacing logs and other primary manufactured products with processed value-added products. The overall trend of wood product imports has led to further declines in domestic wood industries, and this has yielded greater opportunities for foreign producers. In order to restore domestic forestry and forest products industries, the government has continually paid for a variety of programs including promotion of domestic wood consumption, subsidies for regional timber production, development and dissemination of new processing technologies, etc. In the early 1990s, the Forestry Agency announced a new initiative aimed at promotion of forestry activities under the name of “River Basin Forestry Management,” which followed introduction of three forestry laws to implement comprehensive measures for pursuing a collective effort and establishing links between forest owners (upstream) and the processing industry (downstream). However, the development of the new initiative will still depend on competitiveness of domestic plantation products against products processed internationally. Promotion programs at the regional level will require a better flow of market information and attainment of greater economic efficiency in harvesting, transport, and manufacturing.

Wood raw material production without barked round is 3.5 billion m3 in the world. According to their amounts, industrial wood products set out log, fiber chip and pulp wood respectively in. Wood raw material produced in Turkey is not enough for market demand, so 9% of industrial wood demand has been imported. For this reason, the quality loses are as important as the quantity loses, which can be occurred during wood raw material production. Both preserving of continuity of forest sources and saving of addition to country economy are important during wood raw material production. To reduce the quality losses on the wood raw material is possible with the usage of developed techniques, taking into consideration sector demand, storing of wood raw material by suitable conditions and being worked the experienced worker.

In the early post-war period, Taiwan's national forest management faced a crisis of the ”imbalance between reforestation and lumbering” with forest protection often not being realized. The area of idle woodlands had been about one million hectares. For this situation, ”the ambiguousness of forest administration and production” was the explanation wildly accepted. This article first challenges the explanation, then focuses on the institutions regulating lumbering in the national forests, and investigates their interactions and articulations. The author also provides an alternative explanatory framework and uncovers the relationships within the forest environmental and socio-economic changes during that time. Classified by the attributes of managers, the institutions regulating lumbering in Taiwan's national forests could be divided into government-and private-managed ones and their origins could be traced to the Japanese colonial rule. When Taiwan was returned to the Republic of China, the Forest Bureau, which was later replaced by the Taiwan Forest Administration (TFA) in 1947, took over the high-valued and stocked coniferous woodlands managed previously by both the Government-General of Taiwan and Japanese capitalists and then divided these lands into six government-managed lumbering grounds, with the Forestry Bureau monopolizing most of the timber market. Consequently, the situation of private-managed lumbering industries was similar to that during the Japanese colonial rule. Their lumbering was restricted to the low-valued and stocked hardwoods under the supervision of the forest administration. However, the market for fuel wood was almost wholly monopolized by these lumbering capitalists. In the early post-war period, demand for railroad sleeper cars, timber, and fuel wood kept rising. As a main timber provider, the TFA could not meet these demands, because of the high costs of operations, the simplicity of the categories of wood it provided, and the inefficiency of management. The ”institution for allocation and selling” was designed to alleviate this urgent situation. However, the operation of this institution was impacted by serious inflation, multiple structures of the timber market, and an unlimited demand for the wood by military agencies, resulting in that the running of government-managed lumbering grounds turned into a serious predicament. In this context, on the one hand, the state not only recognized the permits for lumbering acquired in the Japanese colonial rule of those private-managed lumbering capitalists, but also continued and consolidated their special positions by new institutions. The goals of the state were to integrate capitalists’ capacities so as to satisfy the rising and various demands, increase state revenues, thus compensating the deficits resulted from the allocation and selling of timber and providing finances to reforestation. On the other hand, in practice, these articulations facilitated capitalists' capital accumulations accidentally and extracted society's economic surpluses to support the production and reproduction of public-operated enterprises and military agencies. Moreover, the capacity of the state to reforest the lumbered woodlands was weakened, while rising prices of timber and fuel wood prompted people to fell trees illegally. Government-and private-managed lumbering industries were in fact often the main causes of forest destruction. Consequently, both society and the forest environment paid a heavy price for the resulting chaos during the early post-war period.

In Flanders, large-scale exploitation of the landscape was initiated in the tenth century by abbeys and by powerful landowners like the Count of Flanders. As a consequence, a lot of forested areas were converted into arable land and the remaining forest and woodlands became highly fragmented. It is estimated that in Flanders the lowest forest cover ever was reached by the end of the thirteenth century. It is known that from the thirteenth century onwards, Flemish towns imported massive amounts of construction timber. However, the wholesale depletion of local forests and the associated timber supply is contradicted by many archaeological discoveries of wooden structures built from local material. The provenance of such historical timbers can be determined by tree-ring analysis. Most probably, scarcity was not the sole factor behind the large-scale importation of construction timber. Quality, or rather the lack of high quality-timber on the local market, must also have played a role. During the Middle Ages the practices of coppicing and coppicing with standards were widely applied. These types ofwoodland management are highly productive and make it possible to harvest firewood and small-sized lumber in a relatively short time. However, these management practices are not best suited to the production of large quantities of straight-grained and high-quality construction timber. Due to the lack of large quantities of high-quality local timber, the importation of construction timber became increasingly important. An examination of the fourteenth and fifteenth century municipal accounts of several Flemish cities reveals that at least three major source regions can be identified for the timber imported into Flanders: the Baltic harbours and Scandinavia in the north, the forests along the Rhine, and the Ardennes and Meuse regions in what is now southern Belgium. Dendrochronological research into roof constructions in Bruges, Ghent and Oudenaarde demonstrates that the timbers were often imported from forested regions along the River Meuse. The trees were felled, tied together to form a raft and floated downriver to the coast. Eventually, most of these rafts arrived at the timber market in Dordrecht, from where they were shipped to Damme, the port for Bruges. In the Bruges municipal accounts, the town of Dordrecht is frequently cited as the place where timber was purchased for civil construction projects. This timber was also in demand further inland where it was used for large roof constructions. Although it is known that Baltic oak was imported, such timbers were never used for construction, but for more delicate applications such as panelling, staves or sculptures. A constant feature of medieval wood construction in Flanders is the use of oak, with only a few known examples of elm being used instead. Coniferous wood, although mentioned in the municipal accounts, was rarely used in historical wooden construction in Flanders. During the Middle Ages, widespread human intervention in local forests (timber harvesting, conversion to farmland), left them highly fragmented. While still able to produce everyday construction timber, local forests were no longer able to meet the ever-growing demand for high-quality construction timber.

This study was conducted to analyze the structure of Turkey’s wood products industry and to suggest ways to improve the country’s competitive position in global markets. The 415 largest solid wood manufacturers were surveyed using questionnaires administered in personal interviews and by mail. Results reveal that forest product enterprises are geographically clustered in a few provinces. Thirteen percent of respondents are using outdated technology while 63% are using relatively new technology and 24% are using advanced technology. The 2001 economic crisis seriously affected the wood products industry with a 38% decrease in the number of employees and a number of shuttered facilities. Overall, the research indicates that the Turkish forest products industry is fragmented and is experiencing a number of obstacles to further development. Turkey has an established but generally inefficient forest products industry. This article gives an overview of the sector and offers recommendations for improvement. Results from this study can be useful to manufacturers and policy makers in Turkey and other countries with similar industry structures in short and long-term sectoral planning and development.

The objective of this study was to investigate the diversity of Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) and their source species in Menagesha Suba Forest. Data were collected and analyzed from 57 and 285 circular main plots of 400 m 2 and sub-plots of 1 m 2 areas, respectively. Information on the types of NTFPs extracted from the forest was obtained from a socio-economic survey that involved 123 randomly selected households from six Peasant Associations (PAs) nearby the forest. A total of 142 plant species belonging to 56 families were recorded in the forest, and 59 of them were identified to offer NTFPs of one type or another. Nine different types of NTFPs are extracted today from the forest and these include traditional medicine, household utensil, honey and bees-wax, fuelwood, farm implement, animal fodder, edible forest products, smoke wood, and flavoring and spices. The diversity, density and relative abundance of NTFPs’ bearing plants varied depending on the type of NTFP under consideration. In conclusion, Menagesha Suba Forest hosts rich diversity of plant species that offer diverse NTFPs. This richness with NTFPs resource can be used as an opportunity to device alternative strategy for the sustainable management of the forest by involving and allowing the local community to utilize the NTFPs resources rather than for destructive uses like timber harvest or conversion to other forms of land use. The incentive from NTFPs utilization could contribute to sustainable livelihoods of the local communities, which if realized, can win their interest for better conservation and development of the Forest. Keywords/phrases: Diversity, Density, Forest conservation, NTFPs, Menagesha Suba Ethiop. J. Biol. Sci ., 9(1): 11-34, 2010

In order to move to a greener economy, Panel Industry needs to imply convention development and environmental sustainability. The three important measures to characterize environmentally friendly solutions would comprise of 1) the raw material from sustainable sources, 2) minimal waste generation and 3) process conformance with health and safety standards. In a bid to become more environmentally friendly sustainable, Indian plywood Industries Research and training Institute has carried out research on the suitability of fast growing plantations species for the manufacture of wood composites viz plywood, particle board, medium density fiber board, compregs, laminated veneer lumber. These panel products conform to the requirements of Indian standards. Adhesives from renewable sources such as lignin, tannin, soya, black liquor etc. by replacing phenol in Phenol formaldehyde adhesives. Technology for utilisation of various agro and forest residue such as rice straw, rice husk, wheat straw, casurina, chirpine needle, Coir as raw material to manufacture wood alternatives has been successfully developed by IPIRTI. Low formaldehyde or no formaldehyde emission adhesives for panel products that conform to International standards have led to the development of green technology by minimizing the greenhouse gas emissions. Utilising the industrial waste such as fly ash for the manufacture of wood geopolymer composite would be a new insight for the green construction industry. The Efforts made by IPIRTI in innovating green technology/process have stood the Indian wood based industry in good stead for the benefits of people of the country. Keywords: Green technology, Plantations species, Forest conservation, Environment

The utilization of short rotation woody crops (SRWC) to produce wood on marginal crop and pasture land could greatly enhance the production of wood for various uses in Minnesota with utilization for energy being of current interest. SRWC involves the more intensive application of inputs on more valuable land than naturally regenerated forests that currently supply the bulk of the forest products industry in Minnesota. Breeding efforts to improve productivity and disease resistance in hybrid poplar species are making the technology of SRWC competitive with agricultural uses of marginal land. This study models the economic impact of a potential shift in use of the land resource by replacing production of hay and pasture that provides feed for cow-calf beef operations in northwest and west central Minnesota with SRWC. Regional economic impacts of such a shift are measured with established input-output techniques, using the software tool IMPLAN. To complete this analysis, the magnitudes and sectors of expenditures needed to produce either beef calves or hybrid poplar plantations were compared using farm records and hybrid poplar budgets. Construction of a $175 million energy conversion facility capable of making 44 million gallons of ethanol and 7.6 million gallons of mixed alcohols by catalytic means following gasification would result in creation of 2,412 jobs during the construction period, with $158 million in value-added (mainly employee compensation and business taxes). Operation of the facility after the end of construction, if supported by 200,000 acres of hybrid poplar production, would not change the number of jobs very much compared with using the land for cow-calf operations. However, the SRWC-related jobs would likely be at higher average salary levels and business tax collections would be higher, for a value-added increase of $80 million annually. In addition to greater wood supplies to support the forest products industry, logging pressures may be reduced on public forest land as a consequence of greater deployment of technology and methods that can result in production per acre that is eight to ten-fold greater than naturally regenerated forests.

The Miombo woodlands are one of the largest dry forest types in Africa, covering over 2.7 million km-2 in eastern, central and southern Africa; including Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Over 20 percent of the people in Sub-Saharan Africa depend on the Miombo woodlands for their livelihood in terms of food, direct revenues, employment, forage for animals, tourism, fuel, timber and non-timber forest products. Miombo woodlands which occupy over 60 million hectares of land in Zambia and Tanzania contribute to the economies of these countries in terms of direct revenues, tourism, employment, raw materials for building and mining industries, energy and non wood products. Unfortunately, indiscriminate exploitation for timber, charcoal and other products, frequent destructive woodland fires and expansion of agricultural activities have of recent contributed to eroding the environmental importance and ecological diversity of this type of forest. With fast growing populations around these forests, this is likely to increase pressure even further on these forests. Proper management and utilization of these forests are therefore important if they are to sustained future uses. This paper outlines the current harvesting principles and documents procedures to follow in order to improve the existing harvesting practices in Miombo woodlands in southern and eastern Africa using Tanzania and Zambia as case studies. The document recommends improved procedures and techniques, which if adopted will lead to improved productivity, improved environmental value, health status of the residual forest and improved socio-economic benefits at local and national levels. The paper is intended to be used by policy makers, forest departments logging managers, field supervisors, communities and other stakeholders involved in timber harvesting with an objective to promote harvesting practices that improve productivity sustainable and efficient resource utilization while minimizing negative environmental impacts. Keywords : Reduced impact logging miombo woodlands - pre-harvest planning – platform sawing - post harvest impact assessment Tanzania Journal of Forestry and Nature Conservation Vol. 77 2008: pp. 54-72

Opportunities for REDD+ to minimise forest carbon emissions and mitigate climate change in Southeast Asia

The Amazonian region is the most important timber producer from native's forest exploitation in Brazil. In 2004 there were 82 timber centers, municipalities or micro regions that process at least 100 thousand m³/year of wood logs for industrial purposes. Since the overthrow of the tree to the wood processing, no more than 50% is used, so at least 50% is in a waste form. Most of this waste has no use. Moreover, the region has a strong demand for charcoal to supply the iron industry needs. The residual biomass should be considered as a byproduct of the production chain of wood and its use is a practice to mitigate the environmental impacts of this chain. However, the use of this energy source would also result in impacts to the environment that must be evaluated to verify the sustainability of this proposal. The objective of this research is to assess the impacts associated with a supply chain of renewable energy based on forest residues through the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The research is focused on the state of Para, the greater producer of timber in Brazil. There were identified the main processing centers of timber and therefore the main points of waste generation. The residues were classified according to their origin in exploitation waste (harvest) and processing waste (sawmills). Thus, it was possible to determine an average potential and a logistics structure for the actual use of these. For the LCA there were measured the mass and energy flows involved since the generation of waste until its discharge at the courtyards of charcoal kilns. The research revealed that there is a significant amount of waste that could be used to produce energy in the region. Such use has important impacts, mainly due to intensive use of fossil fuels in transporting the waste. But there are also positive impacts relating to methane emissions avoided by the removal of waste from the forest and the replacement of wood from deforestation for charcoal production. Therefore the use of forest residues for charcoal production is presented as a major initiative to regulate the energy matrix and improve the production chain of wood in the state of Para. (Resume d'auteur)

Sustainable forest management is known as the most effective type of forest management. This mode of management is aimed at enabling sustainable and comprehensive development in forest-related sectors. Practicing sustainable management in forests requires powerful tools in order to ensure achieving objectives of forest management and, at the same time, direct processes in a sustainable way. Forest management plan is the most suitable means to carry out this type of monitoring. Though, the forest management plan is a tool to set in motion, a management scheme. This requires certain proper criteria and indicators in practice. The criteria and indicators have various applications within a forest management plan, including their application in monitoring forest management plans. In fact, the criteria and indicators are themselves derived from the functions practiced in forests. Therefore, knowing a few functions of forests, we can outline monitoring criteria and indicators. This study is aimed at prioritizing the criteria and indicators required for monitoring forest management plans in Caspian forests in general and Kheyrud Forest in particular. This is the first study made using a hierarchical analysis for two functions of wood production and forest conservation in Caspian forests. Formulating these criteria helps monitoring the forest’s functions and can be used in determining, measuring, analyzing and assessing sustainability in the forest under study. Key words: Monitoring criteria and indicators, forest management plan, wood production function, forest conservation function.

Woody biomass from the forest sector is an abundant resource for renewable energy generation. Conventional woody biomass materials such as timber and stem are normally high quality solid fuels for combustion applications in terms of ash related operational problems. Recently, new raw woody materials such as forest residue are gaining interests for energy production purpose. Forest residue is the remaining fraction after harvest and outtake of the wood timber, including tree tops, branches and barks. Compared to conventional woody biomass, the forest residue has a wide variation of ash content and concentration of ash forming matters. The aim of this work was to characterize and investigate different parts from Norway spruce trees regarding ash content, ash composition and ash melting and slagging behaviors. Different parts from spruce tree were studied in present work including stem wood, bark, branch and twigs. The ash content and ash melting temperature of the four fuel samples were measured through following standard procedures. Concentrations of main ash forming elements were analyzed by an inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES). The ashes from stem wood, bark and twigs were further investigated by a scanning electron microscopy equipped with energy dispersive X-Ray analysis (SEM- EDX) and X-Ray diffractometry (XRD). The results showed that the branches and twigs contain higher contents of ash forming matters than that of the stem wood. Chemical compositions of ashes from four parts of the spruce tree are dominated by Ca, K, and Si. The K and Na contents in the branches and twigs are significantly higher than that of stem wood and bark, indicating high tendency of ash melting and slagging. The melting points of ashes from branch and twigs were 100-200 °C lower than those of the ashes from stem wood and bark, respectively. SEM-EDX and XRD analysis, melting of ashes from branch and twigs are mainly attributed to formation and fusion of low temperature melting alkali silicates.

Chainsaw milling continues to thrive with regular timber delivery for domestic timber market to meet the needs of consumers. It is largely recognized as a major challenge for sustainable forest management, hence very exigent to obtain and maintain reliable data for planning and for informed policymaking in the forestry sector. This paper aimed at determining the size of the domestic timber market in Ghana. The country was zoned into five and five survey teams were raised, collected the data within the same period for 14 days simultaneously. Data collection was through structured questionnaires and personal interviews. The study revealed that the total annual national projected stock volume of timber was estimated as 2,513,428.9 m3 of which 1,532,199 m3 was consumed. A total of 108 domestic timber markets were identified nationwide and categorized into small, medium and large based on the estimated number of sheds per market. The number of timber merchants, 1157 and timber trade associations, 55 were surveyed in the ten regions. The main sources of timber supply were bush cut and sawmill of which the percentages of the monthly timber supply with respect to the national monthly volume were 72% and 28% respectively. Major timber products identified were beams, boards and lumber. The number of dimensions recorded from the three timber products was 194 and 99 timber species were identified with six of the species available in all the 10 regions of Ghana. The stock volume of the first 10 dominant species on the domestic market constituted 72% of the total national volume stocked.

Wood is a natural polymeric material which has a heterogenic nature. The natural growth process and environmental influence can lead to features in wood that are undesirable for certain applications and are known as defects. Defects in wood affect the visual appearance and structural properties of wood. The type of defect is based on whether growth, environmental conditions, handling or processing causes it. The definition and acceptability of defect types can vary between industries. Wood materials such as log, lumber and parquet are usually subject to a classification before selling and these materials are sold based on their quality grades. The ability to detect internal defects both in the log and lumber can save mills time and processing costs. In this study, information on the automation research conducted for detection the defects in wood materials were given. As a result, it is indicated that there are numerous scanning methods able to detect wood features, but no one method is adequate for all defect types