Influence of globalization on forests and forestry

The most recent years of worldwide socio-economic development have been characterized by accelerated phenomena with clear supranational features, all of which have been identified with the term globalization. Until now, the most evident feature of the globalization process has been the intensive interweaving of the financial centers in worldwide operating markets. In this process, the links to national economies, particularly within the forestry sector, are declining rapidly, and the largest enterprises (namely the multinationals) are operating exclusively on a global scale. As forest management is still traditionally oriented on local, regional and, at most, national levels, timber markets and wood processing industries have already been strongly affected by the globalization process. The same seems true to the non-timber produce, as far as it is following the development of wood production. The paper discusses – partly argumentatively, partly empirically - the impacts of globalization on forests and forestry by looking closer to the territorial value of forestry, the non-wood forest production, and the role of civil society on forest policy exemplarily. The findings are being discussed in the (tentative) conclusions.