ENHANCEMENT OF TIMBER PRODUCTION

Considering the wide distribution of chestnut trees throughout Europe (including outside EU countries, from Portugal to Georgia and Azerbaijan), and the high density of forest (France and Italy count together up to 14.000 km² of chestnut forests), chestnut timber production proves to be a very good opportunity for all the Countries where it grows naturally. The use of the wood of sweet chestnut tree is potentially unlimited: from the smallest objects up to biggest. The content and high quality of the tannin allows outdoor and indoor uses. The chestnut wood can be used in very modern applications: part of modern furniture, laminated wood frames, solid wood panels, jewels, shingle, “bardage” (exterior wall cladding), houses of the future... The sweet chestnut is a sustainable tree and a very interesting species for the social-environmental change in the future. Its strong growth (until 24 m³/ha/year the strongest after the poplar), allows it to store more CO2 than numerous indigenous species as e.g. the oak and the beech. But all this potential is strongly limited by the lack of silviculture, the risks of climatic changes, the absence of high quality genetic material resistant to diseases, and insufficient efforts in development and innovation. Although it is no possible to summarize in a few lines the work and results of the different chestnut working groups, in these brief notes the main current silvicultural and technological aspects have been presented to intercept the priority of the research and the need of improvement for the technology.