Promotion and Utilization of two Lesser-Used Timber Species from Afram Headwaters Forest Reserve

Wood has always held a significant place in human history. It has served man as a structural material for buildings, furnishings, tools and weapons and until recently as the only readily available fuel. Wood represents one of the most important renewable natural resource. Currently, Ghana’s timber industry is faced with diminishing volumes of forest resources and threatened with possible extinction of most traditional timber species. The industry’s concentration on international trade with a few major timber species is a critical constraint that has led to over-harvesting of the more popular species. With the dwindling volumes of these primary timber species, it has become necessary that the industry utilizes these promotable lesser-used and lesser known timber species (LUS/LKS) that relatively abound in the forest. Notwithstanding their distribution and abundance in most forest reserves, information on their basic and technological properties for efficient promotion is lacking. Two of such species, Cola gigantea and Ficus sur, were selected for study.