Wood quality of eucalyptus plantation in Brazil

The area of eucalyptus plantations in Brazil is 4,3 million ha, as a result of the fiscal incentives policies implanted in the 60's. That significant area concentrated mainly in the states of Minas Gerais, Sao Paulo and Bahia seeks to supply the demand of the Brazilian forest industries, with strong expansion to attend the national and international market. Actually, the possibility of a wood shortage in the next decade has been stimulating an inversion in the decreasing tendency in the annual reforestation rates. Also, investments have been applied to genetic improvement, nutrition, soil preparation and, recently, with the experimental practice of fertilization associated with the irrigation. For example, the Project Brazil Eucalyptus Potential Productivity, initiated in 2000, demonstrated that the eucalyptus clone plantation presents a mean productivity of 49 m³/ha/year applying the traditional technique, that includes the fertilization. Without the fertilization the wood productivity is reduced to 34 m³ ha-1 year. The introduction of the irrigation increase the wood productivity to 63 m³ ha-1 year and with the irrigation plus fertilization the productivity reaches 68 m³ ha-1 year, representing an increase of 38% in relation to the usual silvicultural practices. While the irrigation and fertilization treatments increase the eucalyptus trees growth rate considerably, the information on the effects on the wood properties are scarce. The knowledge of the wood property alterations due to the stimulus in the volumetric growth is essential to define the strategy for future research. According to the forest managers and wood technologists it is fundamental to consider the wood properties, even if the main objective is the increase of the wood volume of the eucalyptus trees on plantations. The lack of alterations in the wood characteristics, or even, the improvement of the quality for specific applications are considered desirable. This work has the aim to present the wood quality variation of the main eucalyptus tree species from fast-growing plantations established in Brazil.