Rio de Janeiro – Brazilian forestry production totalled 13.6 billion Brazilian reals (US$ 7.9 billion) in 2009, registering growth over the previous year, when sector revenues reached 12.7 billion reals (US$ 7.3 billion). Of the total obtained last year, 66.3% (US$ 5.2 billion) came from forestry, and 33.7% (US$ 4.6 billion) from forestry extraction, which represents management of native forests.
The figures are part of the Vegetable Extraction and Silviculture Production Research, disclosed on Wednesday (24) by the Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics (IBGE) and points at sector growth being boosted mainly by extraction, which grew 7.9%, as exploration of forests planted for that purpose grew 5.6%.
Lumber production in vegetable extractivism totalled US$ 2.3 billion and non-lumber vegetable extraction totalled just US$ 396 million. Among the items included in lumber production are charcoal, firewood, logs and pine knots.
According to the study, the production of charcoal in 2009 suffered a reduction of 19% over 2008, having dropped from 6.2 million tonnes to 5 million tonnes. Production of charcoal from silviculture, which had been growing since 2002, dropped 15% in the period, totalling 3.378 million tonnes in 2009.
The same movement was observed in coal from extractivism, which dropped more intensely, 26.2% from one year to the next. In 2009, production totalled 1.639 million tonnes.
The study also shows that firewood production dropped 0.3%, to 83.9 million cubic metres last year. This total includes firewood from silviculture (41.4 million cubic metres) and also that obtained from vegetable extractivism (42.5 million cubic metres).
National lumber production of logs totalled 122 million cubic metres, of which 87.5% came from cultivated forests and 12.5% came from native vegetation.
Still according to the research, among the non-lumber products that were most prominent are assai (US$ 92.6 million), babassu nuts (US$ 70 million), piassava fibre (US$ 63.7 million), native mate herb (US$ 50 million), carnauba sawdust (US$ 45.8 million) and Brazil nuts (US$ 30.2 million). Together, they totalled 89.1% of non-lumber vegetable extraction.
*Translated by Mark Ament
