The secret of the Brokopondo dam

A new assortment of traded timbers, called "wood out of reservoirs" has hit the headlines of international wood market in the last years. It is known that in some reservoirs extensive volumes of timbers are stocked, which are hermetically sealed since decades. The development of new techniques offers the ability to open up and harvest these volumes. There are already the first contingents of timbers from the Brokopondo reservoir (Surinam) commercially available. This wood is solicited as timber with unmodified wood properties.

The reservoir was built 50 years ago. With an area of 1500 square meter it is three times bigger than Lake Constance, Germany. Due to the fact that the rainforest wasn't harvested before flooding the area, an estimated volume of approximately 10 billion cubic meter stand in the reservoir. Harvesting this valuable reservoir of raw material leads to a long-term and ecological worthwhile use of the precious wood.

First practical experiences show, that the wood properties, especially the dimensional stability, has been individually improved. This is due to the fact, that growth stresses in the woody tissue, which occur during growth of the tree, dissipate over the time of storage in the water. Within an interdisciplinary research project the wood properties and the natural durability of the wood species Andiroba, Cumarú and Pakoeli/Bacuri are investigated to prove the quality of water stored wood in a scientific way. The selected timbers hail from the Gatún lake in Panama and the Brokopondo reservoir in Surinam and were harvested after 40 years of water storage.

 

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