Wood species with superior natural durability were in use since the beginning of timber utilisation. Their importance decreased with increasing industrial timber impregnation. In recent time, however, they gained worldwide new interest due to environmental problems involved with treated timber. In Europe a special Standard (EN 350) has been published and a multinational research project on testing procedures is in progress. This paper refers to former investigations as well as to actual research work and tries to summarize the problems of investigation and classification of the phenomenon known as natural durability. By this the urgent demand on international co-operation regarding sampling, test procedure and classification systems is demonstrated.

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