To Build with Mass Timber in East Africa, Start by Building Confidence in Wood
- CSFEP Team
- Jul 30
- 5 min read
As cities across East Africa expand, the region faces a pressing challenge: how to meet rising housing demand without worsening the climate crisis. Mass timber—engineered wood designed for strength and sustainability—offers a promising solution.
Yet despite its clear potential, mass timber hasn’t gained widespread traction in the region’s construction sector.
In 2022, the Climate Smart Forest Economy Program (CSFEP) partnered with the Busara Center for Behavioral Economics to better understand why. Through interviews with developers, construction professionals, and end users, the research uncovered four behavioural barriers to mass timber adoption in East Africa: structural, informational, psychological, and social.
Understanding these barriers is the first step to unlocking mass timber’s promise—which is why this research continues to guide CSFEP’s work today.
“I have seen it [timber] used for floor, ceiling and kitchen cabinets. I have never seen a wooden building that holds beyond two floors.” Female, Kenya, 29 yrs.
What is mass timber–and why does it matter in East Africa?
Mass timber is a modern, wood-based building material, made by pressing or gluing layers of solid wood together to form strong panels and beams. These can be used to build floors, beams, columns, or walls.
Unlike traditional timber–which is made by cutting and shaping logs–mass timber is engineered for additional strength, stability, and fire resistance. That makes it better suited for complex construction, such as multi-storey buildings.
In East Africa, mass timber offers four clear benefits:
Economic opportunity
Mass timber creates new markets for commercial tree farmers, generating benefits for entrepreneurs, forests, and the local economy.
Carbon savings
As trees grow, they store carbon from the atmosphere. This carbon remains stored within the wood when the tree is transformed into timber products and buildings. Mass timber construction is therefore a more climate-friendly alternative to concrete and steel, which both release large amounts of carbon into the atmosphere during their production.
Environmental benefits
Mass timber can be made from smaller, fast-growing trees that aren't usually suitable for traditional timber products. When grown and harvested sustainably, these trees offer multiple benefits. They can be interplanted with crops to improve soil health and land productivity. Over time, they produce more wood and store more carbon on the same plot of land. This approach also creates local jobs and helps take pressure off East Africa’s old-growth forests—critical ecosystems for biodiversity and climate stability.
Better buildings
Mass timber is more structurally-sound and fire-resistant than regular timber. It allows for faster construction; offers better thermal comfort; and requires lighter frames and foundations–—reducing environmental impact and easing pressure on land.
“I think it is more of tradition where clients don’t look at wood as a structural material. Say, you are putting up a 20-storey building and you tell the client that you will use timber for the columns and beams, they would laugh at you. People here haven’t seen that side of timber.” Male, Kenya, 32 yrs.
Barriers to uptake
The report found four interlinked barriers:
i) Structural barriers: Mass timber remains less cost-competitive than traditional materials, mainly due to limited supply and a lack of supportive policies for local timber.
For example, national and regional policies aimed at curbing deforestation—though important for environmental protection—have sometimes unintentionally increased the cost and complexity of sustainable timber use in construction.
ii) Informational barriers: Without reliable information or awareness about mass timber, building professionals are less likely to choose it.
Most people interviewed couldn’t distinguish between natural timber and mass timber—though more than half had heard of it. One reason for professionals’ lack of experience with wood products is the decline of hands-on woodcraft education in the school system. For instance, carpentry has been removed from many high school curricula, limiting early exposure to wood as a building material. As a result, few young people enter the construction sector with experience or confidence in working with wood. Some stakeholders also saw mass timber mainly as a finish for walls, floors, and ceilings—rather than as a strong material suitable for structural construction.
iii) Psychological barriers: Negative past experiences with wood have shaped perceptions among building professionals, making them less likely to see it as a modern or reliable material.
Many associate wooden structures with short-lived buildings they have seen in lower-income areas. Few have worked directly with mass timber, so there is little firsthand knowledge of its benefits. This lack of positive experience creates hesitation, especially among developers and contractors handling large projects. They often prefer to stick with familiar methods and avoid materials that feel unfamiliar or unproven locally. Without visible, successful examples of mass timber buildings in the region, many decision-makers choose to minimise risk and cost by avoiding it altogether.
"The initial structures that were done with mass timber were never good; they failed because of the level of expertise with which they were done. So, people shied off and that is what led to the inferiority of timber structures.” Male, Kenya, 33 yrs
iv) Social barriers: The slow acceptance of mass timber homes is partly driven by public perception.
In East Africa, wood is still mainly seen as a material for furniture or interior finishes—not as a core structural material. Timber houses are often associated with temporary structures and a lower socioeconomic status, reinforcing the idea that they are less desirable or durable. Because people tend to choose home styles that reflect social norms, few buyers aspire to live in a timber home. Until people see high-quality, long-lasting wooden buildings in their communities, these doubts and stereotypes are likely to continue—slowing the broader adoption of mass timber.
"I would like to see where they have been used before. Like prefabricated materials that have come in so much especially on concrete. I have seen buildings and slabs using prefabricated concrete, and I know I can use them.” Male, Kenya, age unknown.
The solution is a coordinated approach
To grow the mass timber industry in East Africa, we must take a coordinated approach.
By addressing the barriers to adoption while engaging key decision makers–such as architects, engineers, contractors, foresters, and clients–we can quickly increase mass timber’s market share.
The research highlights three starting points:
Raise awareness
Study participants noted that limited awareness and a lack of accurate information about mass timber can affect a project from beginning to end. Early on, professionals might overlook mass timber because of their unfamiliarity with it. Later in a project, a mass timber building might not earn final approval from an official with limited experience with the material, despite being structurally sound. Raising awareness–by sharing stories, providing professional training, or addressing misinformation–could help close this knowledge gap and increase confidence in mass timber.
Strengthen supply chains
Right now, East Africa lacks access to affordable, locally sourced timber; trained professionals; and supportive policies. Tackling these structural challenges means working with governments to develop regulation that will enable a sustainable timber market. It also means working with university and apprenticeship programs to develop programs that can train local young professionals to work with timber.
Build trust through local examples of success
Many people still associate timber buildings with poor quality or temporary housing. Others are influenced by social norms that view wood as less desirable. Visible, high quality examples of local mass timber buildings can help overcome these psychological and social barriers.
Starting now–even as we wait for the mass timber manufacturing sector to mature
To be clear, East Africa still needs to significantly expand its manufacturing capacity before mass timber can become a mainstream building material.
But this study underscores a key insight: we can start building demand now. By encouraging the use of any kind of wood in construction today, we help lay the foundation for mass timber’s future.
Fostering greater familiarity and acceptance of wood—across design, engineering, and public perception—will help unlock both supply and demand. That way, as the mass timber supply chain matures, the market will already be ready to build with it.