Teak forests globally

The FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) published the study “Teak Resources and Market Assessment 2010” in 2012. In this worldwide gathering of statistics it was detected, that the teak forest stock in the Asian countries of origin is declining a lot. For 2010 a total area of 29 million hectares of primeval teak forests in India, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar were determined, almost half of which are only in Myanmar. Meanwhile these countries rendered a prohibition of harvest or export. 

Teak plantations increasing: A positive fact that was stated in the report was that the area of teak plantations is increasing. For the issue of the report 38 countries announced a total area of teak plantations of 4.346 million hectares of which 83% are in Asia, 11 % in Africa, 6 % in the tropical regions of America and Oceania. 22 further countries are known to manage teak plantations, however no data was provided for the study. Therefore it is assumed that the worldwide area of teak plantations should be significantly higher in the approx. 60 countries. 

The countries with the largest area of teak plantations are: India (1.667 million ha), Indonesia (1.269 million ha), Myanmar (0.39 million ha), Ghana (0.214 million ha), Nigeria, Thailand, Bangladesh, Brazil, Panama and Ecuador. Costa Rica announced an area of 0.0315 million ha (= 31,500 ha), but bigger total areas are more likely. 

The majority of the worldwide teak plantations are young. Regardless of the examined country, there is a similar age structure, according to which approx. 77 % are younger than 20 years and 18 % belong to the class between 21 and 40 years. Only 5 % are older than 40 years. The assertiveness of the youngest class is the clear indicator to the intensified efforts towards afforestation and management of plantations in the last 20 years.