Plantation News.

March News 20/2/2009

In the last year, the price of concrete and structural steel in Costa Rica have risen by 50% due to fuel costs, so that now it is cheaper to build with wood – and it's certainly nicer looking. Wood, though heavy, is lighter than concrete for building, and so fuel cost impacts concrete much more than wood. Manufacture of concrete and steel is fuel-intensive, while most of the processing of wood is done with hydroelectric electricity in Costa Rica. As long as the rains keep coming (and we are in a rainforest climate, after all) the price of electricity remains pretty stable.
All in all, investing in trees is looking very good right now. The future supply is still woefully low here as in many parts of the world. There isn’t nearly enough being planted to handle even current demand.
We have significantly increased the size of the planting every year so far, and with both the stock market and housing market suffering, the coming year is looking to be the biggest increase yet. This is heartening when you consider that there is no end in sight to the shortage of tropical wood, particularly wood grown with environmental consciousness. If everyone had the recommended 14% of their portfolio in trees, imagine the difference it would make.

Ethical Forestry are also soon to launch a new online tree management databse -- The TMD....see here for more details.