CONTENTS

Introduction

Most of the countries of the Near East region are located in an arid zone, very poor in forest coverage. For example, the percentage of the area covered with forest in the Arab countries, to the total area ranges between 0.002% for Egypt, 0.3% for Libia, 0.7% Saudi Arabia, 3.5% Syria, 4.5% Tunisia and 22.3% for Sudan [5]. This makes these countries rely on the importation of wood and wood products for the satisfaction of their needs. But this is unsustainable! The consumer associations and environmental monements like Milieudefensie, Natuur & Milien and Green Peace [28], for example, were able to exert great pressures for the preservation of forests. This has led to the reduction of the rate of cutting of wood leading to less availability of wood in the international markets and the increase of its prices [28]. Egypt, for example, has imported wood and wood products in the fiscal year 2001/2002 for about 3 billion L.E. [3]. This figure will increase in future when the wood producing countries will follow the objective of sustainable harvesting [13].
The agricultural residues (AGR) are biproducts of the agricultural activity, which are of prime economic significance in most of the countries of the Near East region. Most of these residues are being burnt in the open field to clear the fields for the next crops or are used as a fuel at a very low efficiency or for the production of charcoal. But these AGR represent a part of the great investments, made in the agriculture activity, in terms of capital, water and human effort. They should be considered as an additional product of the agricultural activity: a wealth of lignocellulosic materials that could provide the material base of a new industrial revolution that could emerge from rural areas in the Near East region.

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