A web of actors.

Large as pulp and paper firms are -- 50 paper companies today account for half of world production, and the sales of the biggest, International Paper, rank above the Gross Domestic Products of more than 75 countries -- they cannot by themselves open the far-flung sites of production they exploit or capture the subsidies they require. Lending a hand are a flock of other private and public organizations, each with its own interests.

Forestry and Engineering

Consultancy Firms

Consulting companies help propose, plan; design and set up pulp and paper mills or logging and plantation operations for the rest of the industry, along the way lobbying governments, finding subsidies and linking the interests of international and national business and governments.

Finland's Jaakko Poyry is the largest such firm in the world, with over 60 offices in 25 countries around the world, an estimated 40 per cent of the forest industry consultancy market worldwide, and a 1994 turnover of US$300 million. Poyry's networks are wide and its record one of constant political machination. In 1994, for example, the firm, although it had no previous experience in India, was selected over 15 Indian bidders to carry out World Bank forestry projects in Kerala and Uttar Pradesh. The officer in charge of Bank forestry programmes in India was a former vice-president of the Jaakko Poyry Group, Christian Keil. India's Inspector General of Forests, A. K. Mukerji, meanwhile, had …