RUSS TAYLOR provided the latest quarterly report from the Global Consulting Alliance… featuring commentary from six independent consulting companies that focus on the international forestry and wood products sectors. Highlights include:

• The forest products sector exited 2025 fundamentally reshaped. Rather than a cyclical rebound, the year was characterized by structural adjustment, widening regional divergence, and a shift in strategic priorities.
• Capacity expansion remained concentrated in Asia-Pacific and Latin America, while Europe and North America focused on rationalisation, consolidation, and selective reinvestment. Sustainability, traceability, and supply-chain transparency accelerated as core strategic imperatives.
• Climate policy, carbon markets, and evolving sustainability and disclosure requirements are increasingly shaping forest investment decisions, land-use trade-offs, and fibre availability, reinforcing regional divergence and influencing long-term asset values.
• As the industry enters 2026, forestry, pulp, and wood products producers are increasingly positioning around resilience, cost discipline, and regional strategy, rather than scale-driven growth, reflecting a slower global growth outlook, elevated costs, and a more fragmented trade environment.