Cultivating Malaysia’s timber sustainably

Red Meranti wood decks the façade and makes a striking feature for the Malaysia Pavilion at the Expo 2020 Dubai. The Pavilion’s “Rainforest Canopy” design symbolises a symbiotic relationship between humanity and nature, while the use of sustainable timber as building materials make a bold statement about the country’s sustainable forestry resources. Malaysia has developed a timber export industry that is now the envy of our Asian neighbours, achieving total export of timber products worth RM17.81 billion (US$4.4 billion) in 2020, yet it has also retained more than 50% of its total landmass as tropical forest, amid rising population growth and infrastructure demands throughout 65 years of post-independence nation-building.