Call for greater investment in forestry for local lumber use
Published:Sunday | June 1, 2025 | 12:06 AMLuke Douglas - Senior Business Reporter
Despite the dominance of imported lumber for use in the construction and furniture industries in Jamaica, the use of local lumber continues to a small extent, particularly in the craft sector, as well as by some traditional furniture makers.
At least one player in the woodwork industry is calling for more encouragement and structure to be given for the planting of trees in Jamaica.
Meanwhile, the Forestry Department says the amount of forest cover in the country has increased over the past few years, but the quality of important species has been declining.
“When you look at Jamaica’s statistics you will see that construction is booming, even through COVID. Every house needs wooden furniture or wares. Jamaica is the land of wood and water, and tourism also uses wood and wooden products. So, rather than importing so much lumber and increasing our import bill, we need to look at reliable options for manufacturing,” said Lacey-Ann Bartley, proprietor of Bartley’s All In Wood, which produces a wide range of wooden products from its base in Coolshade, near Williamsfield, Manchester.
Bartley uses both local and imported lumber in her business, but says she could use more local material if Jamaica was more deliberate about growing trees for manufacturing.
She rejects the view that it would be too expensive to produce more lumber locally, stating that the use of technology would allow small producers like herself to thrive, while simultaneously protecting the environment and creating jobs.
“I am not a fan of importing. I am advocating for more cost-effective options to explore plant and wood-based materials for construction, which include bamboo, grass, that sort of thing… . What is needed are options for the commercial treatment in a cost-effective way,” Bartley told the Financial Gleaner.
The entrepreneur says she sources local lumber from individuals with whom her company has had a relationship over the years. These persons, she says, are holders of chainsaw licences from the Forestry Department, which will allow them to purchase trees on private property from the landowners.
Bartley says her company has its unique method of drying lumber for use, but said there is a need for kilns to be located outside of Kingston.
“I think what we need to discuss is the quality of the local lumber. Currently, there is no public kiln available to make more kiln-dried lumber available. There is a kiln in Kingston that you can rent, but for somebody in Manchester or elsewhere in rural Jamaica, the haulage to and from Kingston is prohibitive,” she said.
Bartley called for more education on commercial tree-planting, including the species to be grown, the age at which to cut, and marketing.
She commended the Jamaican government’s efforts to plant more trees in recent years, and particularly the Forestry Department for being responsive to requests for information and planting material. But she added that discussions about tree-planting as a business needs to be elevated.
“Why are we having such a baseline debate about lumber? It is a globally traded commodity; in the global market space, there are wood futures, where you can estimate how much cedar or mahogany will cost 10 or 20 years from now,” Bartley said.
Senior Director of Legal Services at the Forestry Department, Kadian Cruickshank, said that in 2014, some 71 sawmill licences were issued from 133 applications received. As at February 2025, some 85 applications had been received with 10 licences being issued. The licences are renewed annually.
A sawmill is defined in the Forest Regulations, 2001 as any power-driven saw capable of being used for cutting or sawing timber into boards or planks.
Meanwhile, Principal Director of Forest Operations Jerome Smith noted that since 2018, the Forestry Department has been introducing a minimum of 50 per cent of native species in its reforestation programme in a bid to increase diversity and improve marketability of the species grown.
“We have also drafted an interim national standard for timber products, which is in its final stages of approval by the Jamaica Bureau of Standards. Once completed, the INS will improve the marketability of our timber and non-timber products,” he said.
Smith said while there had been a marked increase in forest cover nationally, from 30 per cent in 2012 to 47 per cent in 2025, the overall quality of forests is declining as the critical forests – closed broadleaf and mangroves – are still threatened and, combined, make up less than 10 per cent of remaining forests.
Senior Director of Forest Enforcement Services, Tanika Stewart, said illegal extractions affect forests across Jamaica to varying degrees.
“Our data indicates that the removal of immature species is prevalent in the western parishes of Hanover and Westmoreland for construction, for example, the provision of shores, while the removal of saplings is prevalent in central parishes – Trelawny, Manchester and St Ann – for use as yam sticks,” said Stewart.
“The extraction of timber species mostly affects sections of the Cockpit Country, as well as some forest in St Ann and Hanover,” she added.
Stewart said that while there had been no arrests made in the past fiscal year ending March 2025, since 2022 at least 10 persons have been brought before the court to answer changes re illegal cutting and for not having sawmill licences.
She said the trees being cut were mostly hardwood species such as blue mahoe, mahogany, broadleaf, sweetwood and, to a lesser extent, Spanish elm.
Meanwhile, Christopher Bicknell, managing director of Tank-Weld Limited, said more than 80 per cent of Jamaica’s lumber needs in construction is satisfied by imports, a situation that will not change in the foreseeable future.
“The local industry I’m not familiar with, but for the construction industry, the lumber is mainly imported and the predominant lumber is the southern yellow pine, mainly imported from the southern states of the USA,” Bicknell told the Financial Gleaner.
“Jamaica doesn’t produce or grow the southern yellow pine species, so that (importation) is not going to change.”
Bicknell said poplar, which is used in furniture making and cabinetry, is also imported but in smaller amounts, while some MDF boards are imported for shelving and cabinets, as well as plywood, which is used in construction, mostly for form work.
MDF, short for medium-density fibreboard, is an engineered wood product made from wood fibres and resin. It has a uniform density and thickness, making it easy to machine and finish.