SCC draws a number of conclusions. One emergent trend is that Japan's tropical timber imports are increasingly characterized by a shift from imported whole logs to imported plywood. In general, Japanese tropical timber imports continue to trend downward from the 1980s, though it is unclear to what extent this is a result of reduced supplies, reduced construction and or use of temperate rather than tropical forest timbers.
Forest ecosystems are too valuable for such casual consumption.
Plywood imports from Malaysia in particular increased dramatically, while tropical log imports from most regions decreased. Imports of tropical plywood from Indonesia and Malaysia decreased slightly to 3,736,000 m3 in 1994, but reached an all-time high of 3,988,000 m3 in 1995. Tropical log import figures prior to 1995 do not include imports from Africa. Jan. U96 Statistics. Figures for other years are for the full year and are from Nikkan Mokuzai Shimbun.