During 2010 Arch Wood Protection presented its Continuing Professional Development seminars in Cape Town, Pretoria and Johannesburg. The course content, assessed and validated by the South African Institute of Architects (SAIA), is classified as a category one CPD activity and carries a 0.2 CPD credit.
The seminars attracted architects, specifiers, contractors and other role players in the timber sector and focused on providing information on the general attributes, applications and treatment of timber as well as legislative issues related to timber production and use in South Africa.
Gerard Busse, marketing manager at Arch Wood Protection says the seminars also updated delegates on the latest timber treatment methods, preservation applications and the new generation of ‘green’ wood preservatives.
An interesting overview of the history of timber in South Africa tells of a general absence of local timber production other than the harvesting of local indigenous species until the 1930s. From that time, imports were steadily replaced by timber from commercial plantations established in the country, mainly of pine species. However, these were found to have a low resistance to fungal and insect attack.
The government of the day sought international expertise from UK-based Hickson Timbers and the preservative treatment of wood became compulsory in terms of legislation gazetted in the Forestry Act in 1948. Hickson also established a South African subsidiary which subsequently evolved into Arch Wood Protection SA (Pty) Ltd.
The seminar covers the rationale for timber preservation, to extend the useful life of timber, as well as timber’s various attributes including its being a renewable and reusable resource which, in production and in use, has a relatively low impact on the environment.
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