ABSTRACT
What Has Happened on the Northern Forest-industrial Scene since the Early 1990s?
As has been thoroughly documented by the case studies in this volume, the northern forest industry and forest regimes in Canada, Russia and the Nordic countries have changed considerably since the 1980s. Increasing paper consumption and diminishing barriers for trade and investments have supported the growth of forest companies, strengthened their position in the market and helped them benefit from economies of scale. Consisting earlier of several, rather small companies mainly operating in their respective home countries, the northern forest industry is today dominated by a few companies. Stora Enso, UPM-Kymmene, M-real (all with headquarters in Finland), SCA (Sweden), Norske Skog (Norway) and Abitibi-Consolidated (Canada) belong to the largest and most international companies in this branch of industry. Smaller companies also exist but their share of production and markets has decreased. In addition, the centrally planned and almost closed forest-industrial system of the former Soviet Union has in the 1990s undergone a metamorphosis to a field more or less open for competing domestic and international actors.
