ABSTRACT
In Latin America as elsewhere, the livestock industries and timber-using industries share a number of structural and behavioral characteristics. Most importantly in the present context, both are land-extensive sectors. In Latin America, the economic perspective for forestry and forest industries is determined by the struggle for macroeconomic recovery. The economic health of forest-based sectors is closely linked with movements in world petroleum prices, movements of local currencies against major world currencies, international terms of trade for imports and exports, policies on debt servicing, management of monetary inflation, and negotiations with the International Monetary Fund. The sum of production plus net exports (imports) generates the demand for roundwood production and consumption. Roundwood demand then drives the demand for timber cutting. Latin America's forest economies are struggling to overcome recent setbacks while facing immense uncertainties ahead. Projections of future developments should explicitly recognize and contend with the full measure of ambiguity.
