Abstract

SARMENTO, Elsa  and  DORES, Vanda. The Forestry Sector in the Context of the National Economy: Productivity and Regional Specialization. Silva Lus. [online]. 2013, vol.21, n.Especial, pp.21-37. ISSN 0870-6352.

This paper contextualizes the economic importance of Portuguese Forests, using main macroeconomic aggregates and regional specialization indicators. It offers a definition of Forest-based industries, which is entitled, the “Forestry sector”, based on the National Accounts statistics. In particular since 2008, the weight of the Forestry sector in the Portuguese economy has been declining, being particularly observable in production, employment and GVA aggregates. Most noteworthy are the discrepancies between the Pulp, Paper and Paperboard industries, whose performance is often dissonant with the remaining forestry industries. In 2009, the production of the Pulp, Paper and Paperboard industries became the highest of all Forestry sub-sectors. Later in 2010, Portugal becomes its third largest producer in the EU-27. Portugal is also the country where the GVA ratio to the area of productive Forest is higher in 2009, within the EU-27. In 2009, Portugal ranks as the fifth country (EU-15) with the highest Forestry GVA and sixth in terms of Gross Capital Formation. According to the Eurostat data for 29 countries, Portugal had the highest investment rate in Pulp, Paper and Paperboard and the seventh largest in the Wood Industry. Composed mainly of small businesses, with very specialized production systems, the total Forestry productivity performance was 11.6% below that of the Manufacturing Industry average in 2009. However, the Pulp, Paper and Paperboard customarily records a productivity level over 2.5 times higher than the manufacturing industry and three times higher the overall Forestry sector.

Keywords : Forests; Regional specialization; Productivity; Portugal.

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