Mediterranean Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences (MJBAS) (Peer Reviewed Journal), Volume 3, Issue 3, Pages 145-154, July-September 2019 145 | P age ISSN (Online): 2581-5059 Website: www.mjbas.com Timber Application in Construction Industry And Its Promotion Leopold Mbereyaho 1 *, Samuel Tuyishime 1 , Jean de Montfort Uwintwali 1 , Theophile Kayiranga 1 , Chantal Tumukunde 1 1 University of Rwanda, College of Science and Technology, P.O. Box: 3900 Kigali, Rwanda. *Email: lmbereyaho2015@gmail.com Article Received: 12 March 2019 Article Accepted: 10 July 2019 Article Published: 03 September 2019 1. INTRODUCTION Wood as a natural organic material has been used in construction of different structures including but not limiting to houses and bridges. Construction industry is one of sectors which have been developing fast in Rwanda from last 15 years, many infrastructure facilities are being put in place and while artificial modern building materials such as concrete are in demand throughout the country, not only their costs have never decreased, but also the extraction of respective raw materials has been conducting to environment degradation. There is a need for investigating on other sources of local materials, especially based not only on their potential performance and affordability, but also on their green aspects. Wood is considered as one of these sources. Globally, wood has been in use from prehistory to current times, and even with apparition of other more modern construction materials, wood still is considered. Wood is considered as a material for the future and presented its different advantages, and architects and engineers are encouraged to reconsider concrete and steel materials and instead use sustainably harvested wood to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide associated with construction [1]. Timber is a highly sustainable building material, as it is an environmental friendly, affordable, flexible in usage and durable materials; while the problems associated with its usage such as attack by insects, fungi, fire, depletion of natural resources etc. can be ameliorated with the aid of preservative treatments, fire retardant and afforestation [2]. However in some country wood is too expensive for local people and concrete becomes the major construction material instead; and as alternative solution some innovative ideas are under consideration such as waste-wood composite [3]. In general timber/wood has many good properties such as module of elasticity, compressive to parallel grain, shear strength, hardness, impact bending etc. [4], and for example bamboo as one of wood species traditionally used even in western countries and can be competitive to materials more commonly used [5]. Wood products are used for construction and furniture in Rwanda. There are a number of wood species available on the local market. The most used include Eucalyptus (45%), Grevillea and Cypress, Bamboo, Pinus, etc.[6]. ABSTRACT Wood materials have been in use from prehistoric time until today with different types of timber under application in various structures even multi storied buildings. Wood is an environment friendly from the time it is planted to when it is processed into timber and used as a construction material. In Rwanda, while the plantation of trees has been promoted, their application in construction was still limited to simple houses in rural areas or in some cities where attention was made to touristic expression. The main objective was to investigate on timber application in local construction and make proposals for its promotion. The methodology consisted of relevant interviews, assessment of some timber strength characteristics and its affordability. It was established that such species as Eucalyptus, Grevillea, Red Wood and Pinus were the most used in local construction while the conducted tensile test showed that Eucalyptus had the best strength estimated at 47.37N/mm2. The cost analysis showed that timber material was still at 21% more affordable than conventional materials such as steel. Therefore timber can be used in construction and the wood manufacturing industry needed to be promoted, and all species strength characteristics to be established. Keywords: Wood, Timber, Timber species, Tensile strength, Construction industry, Local market.