Agriculture and Environment: Wood Pulp
Environmental Impacts of Production: Social Impacts
Industrial pulp plantations can have a number of negative social impacts if not properly planned and managed.
When governments designate land for the establishment of plantations, the land is normally described as vacant or unused when in fact it may be inhabited, utilized, or claimed by local people.
Sometimes these people are ethnic minorities or indigenous groups not fully integrated into the mainstream economy. In addition to being displaced by tree plantations, local people can also be affected by the application of chemicals such as herbicides and pesticides.
Conflicts between plantation companies and displaced or local people are commonplace in many areas of the world (Barr 2001; Eraker 2000; Mattoon 1998). Social conflicts are likely to continue to rise in tandem with increases in plantation area planted and increases in human populations (WRI et al. 1998).
Because plantations occupy such large areas, they often monopolize local employment opportunities and fix wages with little room for negotiation. The actual contribution of labour to production costs in forestry operations may be as high as 75% in some cases (WRI et al. 1998). This means that most pulp plantations are very concerned about labour and, in particular, how to bring the costs down.
Some pulp plantations and mills rely on local communities to provide a significant proportion of their raw material, either from plantations of their own or through legal or illegal harvesting from natural forests. Increasingly, companies are establishing systems similar to contract farming.
Communities neighbouring pulp mills are encouraged or even supported financially to plant fast-growing species to sell to the mill. If there are not two mills nearby, then there is no competition and wood prices tend to be set at levels that are highly advantageous to the buyer. Local outsourcing lowers a company's labour costs as well as its fixed investments in tree plantations.
