Teak (Tectona grandis) is a tropical timber species native to South Asia and peninsular Southeast Asia, specifically India, Myanmar, Laos and Thailand. The species grows under a wide range of biophysical conditions from the tropics to the subtropics, with rainfall of 500 to 3500 mm and temperatures of 2° to 48°Celsius. Similarly, soil conditions can range from rocky and infertile acidic soil to fertile alluvial soil (Kaosaard, 1988). There is currently about 29 million ha of natural teak forest, with nearly half of this in Myanmar (Kollert and Kleine, 2017). Teak timber is durable, strong, easy to work and commonly used to produce furniture, housing materials, crafts, ships and many other products. These traits make the timber highly valuable; for centuries, it has been in high market demand. The first plantations of teak were established in Sri Lanka in 1680 (Perera, 1962) and in Indonesia as early as the 13th century (Troup, 1921; White, 1992; Simatupang, 2000). Commercial teak plantations started in India in the 1840s, Myanmar in 1856, Indonesia in 1880 (Pandey and Brown, 2000), and Thailand in 1906 (Krishnapillay, 2000). Teak plantations spread to Africa and tropical America in the early 20th century; Nigeria in 1902, Ghana in 1905, Trinidad and Tobago in 1913, and Honduras, Panama and Costa Rica from 1927 to 1929 (Pandey and Brown, 2000).
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1079/9781800620117.0029Altmetric score:
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Publication year
2023
Authors
Roshetko, J.M.; Sabastian, G.E.; Perdana, A.; Martini, E.; Ekawati, D.; Fauzi, M.A.
Language
English
Geographic
Indonesia
Funders
Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR)
