Automobile industry and wood processing

The forest industry has two parts: cutting trees to obtain timber, and turning timber into goods and materials. Woodworking was long a craft: carts, doors, chests and cradles were made; later furniture, joinery, matches and paper industries grew from it. Chemical processing of wood brought a radical change: alcohol, oils and dyes are made from it. Cellulose is the crushed and chemically treated wood mass, a raw material for paper and artificial fibre. Construction, machine building, light industry and transport use wood products; in turn the forest industry gets varnishes, dyes, chemicals and machines from other branches. Uzbekistan has very few natural forests, so much timber is brought from abroad. To ease the problem, fast-growing trees such as poplar are planted, many seedlings are planted every year, wood waste is processed, and the cellulose-paper industry is developed to save timber: cellulose can also be made from reeds, straw and cotton stalks. Forestry enterprises, nature reserves and national parks protect forests. In the desert, saxaul forests hold the sand.