The Impact of Globalization on the Forest Products Industry

Abstract

In this paper we examine the hypothesis that changes occurring in the forest industry allow its full participation in globalization. The forest industry has undergone profound changes in recent years, largely because of new technologies. These changes have been directly observed by the researchers in the field in the form of intensively managed plantation forests; in laboratories where new techniques are being used to improve tree seeds; and in tree nurseries where the improved seeds are prepared for mass plantings. Traditionally, forestry was primarily an extractive industry that relied on local sources for its basic resource: raw, industrial wood. Today, however, intensively managed planted forests are replacing natural forests as the basic source of the wood resource and modern biotechnology is being applied to create trees that grow rapidly and have traits desired in industrial wood. These changes eliminate the traditional ties between forest product processing and locations with abundant natural forests.