The Government has taken a policy decision to remove all pinus plantations in a systematic manner due to environmental constraints, said Head, Department of Forestry Prof. Hiran Amarasekara. “It is also decided not to plant new plantations in the future.”
He was speaking at the Chamber of Construction Industry of Sri Lanka together with the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Department of Forestry and Environmental Sciences, conducted seminar on “Trends in Treatment of Wood and Wood-Based Products for the Construction Industry of Sri Lanka” at the Sri Lanka Foundation.
He said that due to this decision Pinus Wood is freely available for the timber processing industry and entrepreneurs should use this opportunity. “Today there exists a very large quantity of underutilized Pinus Wood in plantations readily available for harvesting and the Forest Department encourages this utilization. Construction Timber has evolved over time from traditional usage to one “engineered wood” which is considerably stronger and more stable than regular wood. Thus it allows builders, architects, and designers to build better and bigger. This has opened up possibilities for the current use of construction timber to open up with future technologies.”
“With a favorable method of treatment, these could be converted as dimensionally stable and durable construction timber. The overall benefit therefore by converting such readily available timber hitherto not much used will be as the country could prudently and efficiently conserve its timber resource and also spend less on the import of substitute timber to the country.”
Another new technology trend is the innovation of “Glulam” and other engineered wood products for construction. It is exciting that this innovative product could open up vistas for architects/designers and engineers/builders. There was also a presentation and seasoning of timber by the largest treatment operation in the country and supply trends and grading of timber
with special reference to Pinus at this seminar. The current trend in the flooring industry based on locally available timber and all its possibilities was discussed along with the joinery and furniture industry based on locally available timber.
The seminar was wrapped up by Prof. Priyan Perera on “services offered by the Timber Process Innovation Center, at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura”.
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