Efficiency in wood and fiber utilization in OECD countries

Utilization efficiency has been defined as the ratio of the amount of industrial roundwood (or wood pulp) consumed in a country and year to the amount that would have been consumed to produce the same output with a reference technology. The reference technology was described by the average input–output relationships in countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), from 1961 to 2005. The results showed that the efficiency of industrial roundwood utilization increased in most OECD countries from 1961 to 2005. There was also a strong decrease in the amount of wood pulp used for a given level of paper and paperboard production. Regression analysis with cross-sectional data suggested that the main determinant of the differences in efficiency of wood utilization between countries was the forest area per capita. The wood pulp price and population density were the main variables explaining the differences in wood pulp utilization between countries.