Demand and Supply for Timber in Asia and The Pacific

Asia and the Pacific is a large and extremely diverse region, and home to 60% of the world’s population (United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2024), with the smallest per capita area of forest (FAO, 2024a). Deforestation has taken place across the region but at different scales, and different paces at different times. Naturally regenerating forest, or “natural forests" have been destroyed or degraded, partly for the purpose of extracting wood, while planted forests have demonstrated the potential to alleviate pressure on natural forests by providing alternative sources of wood, substituting that timber in some contexts (Harris and Betts, 2023; Hartley, 2002).

This report analyzes the level of timber demand and supply in the Asia Pacific region, and outlines groupings of countries according to demographics and timber use, illustrated by focused case studies. Despite the initial intent of the report to emphasize the differentiation between timber from natural forests and from planted forests, data was lacking to support that clear distinction, except in some specific country cases. In addition to forests, the report provides an overview of available estimates of timber supply from trees outside forest (TOF), which play a key role in wood supply in some countries. The compilation of this information is intended to provide some of the background necessary to understand the opportunities and constraints for scaling up wood production from smallholder farmers and agroforestry systems in the region.