The companies that promote industrial tree plantations would like us to believe that the increasing consumption of pulp and paper products is a global destiny, an unavoidable and irreversible result of development. But in reality, the global pulp and paper industry is driven by the capitalist imperative to continually increase profits, rather than by any genuine growth in the demand for paper.
The damaging impacts of monoculture tree plantations and ever-larger pulp and paper mills have been extensively documented and denounced for decades: the invasion of peasant, Indigenous, and traditional community lands; pollution and depletion of water sources; soil degradation and destruction; and violence against communities, particularly women, who are often responsible for tending the land, growing food, and providing water for their families.
The industry justifies all of this in the name of meeting “the growing global demand for fine printing and writing paper, consumer and industrial packaging products, and tissue paper.” This WRM briefing argues, however, that in reality the industry actively works to create and sustain an ever-increasing demand for wood fibres through marketing, lobbying, and the promotion of disposable paper and new wood-based products. Claims of sustainability or a so-called “bio-economy” serve as additional excuses for relentless expansion, while distracting from the very real and damaging environmental and social impacts.
Recognising these patterns and raising them in public debates and information tools is an important step, not only to further challenge the false narratives of the industry, but also to strengthen the numerous struggles of communities, as they defend life and dignity by reclaiming lands and livelihoods usurped by plantation companies, or protecting the territories they depend on from further plantation expansion.
STOP Industrial Tree Plantations!!!
21st September, 2025, International Day of Struggle against Monoculture Tree Plantations