5.06.01 – Utilization of dry area timber

Unit 5.06.01

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The IUFRO Working Group on Utilisation of Dry Area Timber has only recently been reformed (February 2007), with revised goals and objectives.

Goal – To improve livelihoods and the environment in the world’s drylands through increasing the value of local timber and timber products.

Objective – To develop and promote appropriate sawmilling techniques for relatively low volumes of short, small diameter and often crooked boles, and assist in the marketing of dryland timber and timber products.

The humid tropics and temperate zones are reaching their limits of sustainable productivity, if they haven't passed them already; demand on forest land for conversion to agriculture continues unabated; and all this while over a third of the world is under-utilised dryland. The world's manufacturers are crying out for sources of timber, the world's financial institutions are crying out for guaranteed 'ethical' investments, and the poorest people of the world's drylands are crying out for support for local development. Co-ordinated efforts at national, regional and international level are required now to develop the drylands, not by planting a few trees here and there, but by using markets and investment. Drylands can be made profitable, in fact must be made profitable, if the pressure is to be let off from the rest of the world, and timber is probably the single best opportunity of achieving this.

Promoting timber production and utilisation by planting and managing trees, mostly with multiple uses, will improve the resilience of land-use systems to increasing climatic extremes. In additional, dryland timber is also gaining increasing importance as a valuable product that can help control invasive tree species in arid and semi-arid regions, via the innovative ‘control by utilisation’ strategy.

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