BRIDGE REPAIR/REHABILITATION FEASIBILITY STUDY

Present and Potential Commercial Timbers
of The Caribbean
INTRODUCTION
The steady improvement of social and economic
conditions in the Caribbean countries has brought
about a comparable increase in the consumption of
timber and other wood products. Although the
Caribbean region includes man millions of acres
of forests containing untold billions of cubic feet
of timber, most of the increased demand is met
by imports from outside the region. Softwoods
are imported principally from the United States;
hardwoods, from Europe, Africa, and the Philippines.
Many hundred, even thousands of different
timbers are available in the Caribbean forests;
many of them are qualified for the uses filled by
imported timbers, yet the intra-Caribbean trade
in this commodity is limited to a few species. The
present wood consumption in a large art of the
region consists mainly of imported softwood (coniferous)
species for construction work and a limited
use of homegrown hardwoods (broadleaf) for
furniture, construction, posts, and fuel.
Hardwood timber is, in general, plentiful
throughout the continental area of the Caribbean
and on a number of the West Indies islands. But,
some areas, including Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Barbados,
and some of the smaller islands of the
Lesser Antilles, are handicapped by a scarcity of
both hardwood and softwood species.
The coniferous resources of the region are
largely confined to British Honduras, Honduras,
Nicaragua, and Mexico on the continent, and to a
limited supply in Haiti, Cuba, Dominican Republic,
and the Bahamas in the West Indies. Excepting
British Honduras, all Caribbean countries are
importers of softwood timber, though British
Guiana’s requirements are nearly met by local
hardwoods. The Caribbean area is considered- in
this work to include the three Guianas and the
northern part of Venezuela and Colombia, Central
America, southern Mexico? the southern tip of
Florida, and the West Indies from Cuba and the
Bahamas to Trinidad and Tobago. An increasing
proportion of the softwood lumber imports is coming
from within the Caribbean region. Nevertheless?
the volume of the softwood resources is so
limited that the bulk of future requirements will
have to be supplied from the outside, largely from
the United States.
In British Honduras the pine industry has
reached its full development, and further expansion
must be based on the utilization of lesser
known timbers. In fact,, the best pine stands in
Central America are being consumed so rapidly
that a sharp decline is predicted within the next
two or three decades. But in the Guianas the
volume of exportable timbers is increasing with
advancement in the timber production industry.
In this area, vast tracts of unexploited hardwood
forests remain untouched.
Many hundreds, even thousands, of different
woods are available in the forests of the Caribbean
countries. Yet the local commerical production
and utilization and the exportation of timbers
from the area over the past, 300 years, and even
today, are confined to a relatively few of these
woods. Less than twenty timbers are of importance
in the present export market. Consequently,
many of the smaller islands and Central American
countries import, and use softwood timbers where
indigenous hardwood species would be satisfactory.
Also, many local hardwood timbers, if well
manufactured and if properly marketed in quantity,
could satisfy similar needs in other countries
in the region.
Furthermore, it is reasonable to assume that
among the immense number of unused timbers
are many with qualities equal or superior to the
relatively few native hardwood timbers presently
accepted. Some probably possess outstanding
beauty, durability, resistance to insects or marine
organisms, or have such high strength properties
that they would be readily accepted by the local
and export trade.
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