Trends of forest investments in selected countries of Latin America

Investments in forest plantations are important for economic, environmental and social reasons. Latin America has a large area of forests with a wide range of development. This article aims to review the status of investments in commercial forest plantations in Latin America, with a focus on Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay and Uruguay. The paper includes a short review of five papers published in the Journal of Forest Business research on forest investments in Latin America. The current trends show that Brazil and Uruguay continue developing their forest sectors, despite challenges, in particular in the Brazilian case. On the other hand, Chile is facing some internal challenges, and the forest sector seems to be in a steady state. Colombia, even though it shows great potential, has not been able to develop a commercial forest sector as in the previous countries. Finally, Paraguay is starting a new path, which seems promising, though it relies on a new pulp mill investment on the border with Argentina. Future research should be done on the origin of the investments, the trends of investments for forest restoration as a complement to commercially planted forests, and the development of new forest sectors.