Global Pulp Mill Industry Poised For Collapse - AFP

[hatrack]

The rapidly expanding world pulp mill industry could be poised for collapse due to a failure by financial institutions to research how wood can be found to feed new mills, a report says. The report by the Indonesian-based Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) says that false assumptions about the origins and cost of wood used in emerging-market mills has led investors to channel billions of dollars into financially risky and environmentally destructive ventures.

The report, funded by the European Commission and the United Kingdom's Department for International Development, analysed 67 pulp mill projects. A lack of due diligence may lead to "a new wave of ill-advised projects, setting up investors, forest-dependent communities and the environment for a precipitous fall," a statement accompanying the report warned.

More than $US40 billion has been poured into pulp mill projects over the last decade, with another $US54 billion expected to be invested by 2015, the report said.

It said much of the investment was in Brazil, China, Indonesia, Uruguay and the Baltic States, with low wood costs the major factor driving expansion. "Financial institutions have shown a surprising lack of interest in understanding how the pulp companies requesting loans are going to get all this cheap wood," David Kaimowitz, director general of CIFOR, said in the statement. "In reality, some of these mills have vastly overestimated what's legally available from timber plantations. So the only way they can meet production targets is through unsustainable logging of natural forests or by shipping in wood from distant sources at a much higher cost."

EDIT

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200605/s1636617.htm

[Vinnie From Indy]

1. Hemp is an infinitely better source for pulp products.

Using wood is environmentally harmful, smelly and plain stupid.

[OneBlueSky]

2. yup . . . and it's a hell of a lot faster-growing than trees . . . n/t

.

[kestrel91316]

3. Thank you. If hemp was good enough for the Founding Fathers, why

the HELL isn't it good enough for us?????

Hemp makes really nice fabric, too, sort of like linen. Wears well, resists mildew..............oh, but that would make WAY too much sense. We need to grow cotton so we can continue to make the pesticide/herbicide/fertilizer companies rich.

[skids]

4. They'd have to compete against others for it...

...Hemp hurds are so useful in making construction materials they'd have to get the agriculture scaled up pretty fast, because people will pay more for construction material then for paper feedstock.

Heck, you can just sell the raw untreated hurds straight out -- the equestrians love it for horse bedding.

[Javaman]

5. There is a company in indonesia that makes paper from...

elephant poop.