Alternative species for the forest industry as forms of diversify the landscape

Together the forest and industrial activities within the Portuguese forest sector have a great importance in the national economy. The most used wood species in Portugal for industry (wood panel, sawmill, wood crates) are pine and eucalypt, which leads to extreme dependence and competition between the various industries for the same material, and thus unsustainable pressure on these forest resources. This is one of the causes of the decrease of pinewood area in recent years. On the other hand, this dependence leads to extensive areas of forest monocultures and, subsequently, increased risk of the forest fire propagation. This work intends to stimulate the diversification of the wood products used in the national industry of pulp and to provide a pulp with appropriate characteristics for incorporation as fibber for paper reinforcement. At the level of forest producers, the use of this prime-material would increase competitiveness among tree species and revitalization of less favoured rural areas and, turning them into a possible solution for the lack of wood and an incentive to the reforestation of these areas. Wood from species Cupressus sempervirens and Cupressus arizonica, Acacia delbata and Acacia melanoxylon were analysed. Content of extractives and of Klason lignin, fibre length and coarseness were determined. Representative wood samples from Pinus pinaster grown in Portugal and from Pinus sylvestris grown in Finland were used as reference. The wood from Cupressus sempervirens showed lower Klason lignin and a fibre quality that appears to be more adequate to pulp and paper. Acacia species, with their relatively short, flexible and collapsible fibres, have potential to produce papers with good relationships light scattering/tensile strength and smoothness/tensile strength, at low energy consumption in refining. The studied acacia species showed slightly better performance in pulping than the Eucalyptus globulus sample used as a comparison.