活动名称：木艺木趣国际研讨会暨展览会
时间地点：2011年10月19日，印度班加罗尔J N Tata多功能礼堂
演讲嘉宾：E V Anoop
演讲题目：Kerala’s withering wood security - the way forward

摘要：Even though, Kerala is one of the greenest states in India with roughly 44.58 per cent of the land area under forest cover (FSI, 2009), the state‘s forests, including plantations, account for only 9 per cent of industrial round wood supply, in contrast to 76 per cent by households and estates while the rest being from imports (Krishnankutty 1990, 1998, 2005). The state is heavily dependent on imports, particularly from Southeast Asia and Africa for timber and this trend is likely to rise many fold in the coming years. Many lesser known timbers are increasingly become significant in the market supply causing difficulties in identification, assessing quality and price fixation. While increased timber imports will be an opportunity for our forest products industries and trade allies, the sourcing of wood in either legal/illegal forms will put tremendous pressure on high value, ecologically important forests across the world. While encouraging sustainable consumption of tropical timbers, Forest Certification initiatives across the world will certainly put a stranglehold on imports from abroad in the years to come.

The timber market in Kerala is a sellers‘ market where wood is scarce and demand is high. Therefore, there is a pertinent need to strive hard and look for supplies elsewhere. Trees outside forests (TOF), particularly from homesteads, agroforestry and plantation resources hold tremendous promise to satisfy the state‘s ever increasing demand for supplies. Lesser Used Species (LUS) also needs to be explored as they are welcome substitutes to the more priced but popular species for solid wood uses. However, there are several challenges in effectively utilizing these by assessing the quality and price fixation owing to the presence of small girth logs and significant proportion of juvenile wood in short rotation plantation grown timbers. Homestead/private estates grown timbers such as rubber wood, silver oak and even coconut wood are potential resources of the future. A relook at the planting programmes by the forest department by including trees that provide timber in addition to the other benefits is needed to save the state from an impending crisis affecting its "Wood Security".

关键词：Trees outside forests, Wood security, Forest Certification, Lesser Used Species

E V Anoop, Kerala Agricultural University, College of Forestry, Vellanikkara Thrissur Dist, Kerala, KAU Post 680 656, INDIA.