Tropical hardwood’s long-held status as the prime material for European fresh and seawater marine applications has been increasingly challenged by alternatives; steel, concrete, recycled plastics, wood-plastic composites, temperate timber species and increasingly, for sea defences, rock armour. Some feel that sustainability concerns - the perceived linkage of marine-use tropical species with deforestation - and also the EU Timber Regulation have also increased trade, end-user and specifier risk aversion and helped drive further use of substitutes.  Despite this, according to comments from the EU trade, tropical timber is still holding its own in the market. It ...