China and the Global Market for Forest Products
Transforming Trade to Benefit Forests and Livelihoods
By Andy White, Xiufang Sun, Kerstin Canby, Jintao Xu, Christopher Barr, Eugenia Katsigris, Gary Bull, Christian Cossalter, Sten Nilsson - Forest Trends, Forest Trends, Forest Trends, Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy, CIFOR, Forest Trends, University of British columbia, CIFOR, IIASA, Rights & Resources Initiative View PublicationChina’s spectacular economic growth over the last decade is having a dramatic impact throughout the world. It has become a leading nation in terms of its demand for forest products, and its influence is being felt as far afield as Cameroon and Cambodia, Indonesia and the United States.
China is now in the world’s spotlight, with governments, industry and development agencies eager to learn more about the global impact the country is having on forests and forest industries. Until recently, they have been hampered by a scarcity of reliable information and a lack of rigorous, publicly accessible analysis of macro-level trends. The primary source of market information to date has been proprietary analysis, the costs of which have precluded their use by all but the largest international investors and trade associations. This paper and the body of research it represents aims to help fill the knowledge gap. It is an overview of the key findings of many research studies conducted by Forest Trends, the Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy (CCAP), the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and their many partners in China and the
Asia-Pacific region.