The objective of this work was to seek spectroscopic methods for the evaluation of the natural durability (wood decay tests according to EN 350-1 and EN 113 standards), of four species technically and economically important. Sampling was carried out while trying to favour the variability of heartwood natural durabilitywithin each species. Two spectral zones were studied: the visible and the near infrared domain. Colour measurements were performed on dried wood sample with a Micro flash data color spectrophotometer. FT-NIR spectra were recorded on a BRUKER FT-IR spectrometer (Vector 22/Nl). Partial Least Squares (PLS) regression models were established and validated by cross- and test set validation.