Investigation the factors affecting risk-taking behavior in the forest products sector (TR42 level 2 region)

Since the forest products industry is a labor-intensive that should be considered important in terms of occupational accidents and diseases. In the forest products industry sector, there is a high potential for the emergence of negativities in terms of occupational health and safety due to the working environment's mechanical, physical, and environmental factors. It will be possible to prevent occupational accidents and diseases by taking the necessary precautions for occupational health and safety in working environments. This study is aimed to examine the factors affecting risk-taking behavior from the perspective of blue-collar (employee) and white-collar (manager) workers in forest products industry sectors operating in the TR42 Level 2 region. For this purpose, 148 different enterprises with 10 or more employees for the forest products industry in the study region and 10835 employees with the number of employees in these enterprises consisted of the universe of the study. Due to the pandemic (Covid-19) process in 2020, 687 participants from a total of 64 different businesses, 36 and 28 of them from furniture and wood & cork products businesses, respectively, were reached through face-to-face interviews. Questionnaires were used as a data collection tool in the study. As a result, white-collar workers think that blue-collar workers tend to take more risks, more importance is given to security-related issues within the enterprise, and working conditions are better within the enterprise. This study will provide guiding information to understand the factors affecting the risk-taking behavior of both white-collar and blue-collar workers.

Compliance courses for North American importers

This article presents compliance courses made by the International Wood Products Association (IWPA) for the Lacey Act and other laws affecting the wood-products industry. The training encourages importers to work closely with suppliers to ensure they have access to the information needed to understand the rules and conduct robust due diligence. The course was crafted in the hope that it would help develop an industry-wide class of wood trade compliance professionals. The initial compliance and due-diligence course in 2016 was extremely well-received, it led to a series of more advanced courses, comprising, "Advanced Wood Trade Compliance", "Audits for the Wood Trade Professional", "Wood Products Supply Chain Mapping Basics", and "Formaldehyde Emissions Regulations for the Wood Trade Professional". IWPA has conducted briefings and training for suppliers worldwide, partnering with organizations, such as the International Tropical Timber Technical Association, the Global Timber Forum, the Malaysia Timber Council, and several Chinese industry associations. The global COVID-19 pandemic has led IWPA to re-examine how stakeholders access its wood-trade compliance training courses. In the due-diligence space, travel restrictions are requiring that wood-product importers re-evaluate their due-diligence procedures to ensure they continue to meet the requirements of the Lacey Act and other relevant laws and regulations. IWPA will continue to update its courses to reflect the new reality. In particular, and for the first time, it will offer courses virtually and via IWPA's e-learning platform in the second half of 2020.

Labor market in forest industry amid corona crisis

This article presents the effect of COVID-19 on the labor market in the forestry industry of Russia. The demand dynamics of the labor market 2 years before COVID-19 was decreasing, which then deteriorated sharply as the pandemic came. Because of this, the regional structure of the labor market and the level of competition for decreasing vacancies but increasing job applications were affected as well. The salary in the industry rose, although the trend is primarily associated with decreasing demand for line personnel and inherently low level of income for specialists. As for the labor demand in specialists, among the five most demanded in the industry include managers and heads of production, engineers, technologists, designers, and foremen, with vacancies also offered to joiners and carpenters, mechanics. locksmiths, assemblers, fitters, and CNC machine operators. Lastly, the general portraits of job candidates were presented. Majority of candidates are men, with specialists aged 26-35 and 36-45 prevailing, and those under 22 show the least interest in the industry. Approximately 60% of candidates graduated from university, 20% from colleges, and 13% with secondary education, with the majority having over 6 years of work experience. Salary expectations of candidates were distributed as follows: 40,000-60,000 rubles - 28%, 30,000-40,000 rubles - 20%, 60,000-80,000 rubles - 17%.

COVID-19, digital dreams and innovations

This paper presents the results of a survey conducted during the coronavirus outbreak to the leading companies in the industry and participants of the XXII European Fastmarkets/RISI conference about the current level of economic development, expectations and priorities in the timber industry / pulp and paper industry, and digitalization trends.

Timber housing economy in Brazil: 2013 to 2022 scenarios and crises

Timber housing sector has several features and is essential for civil construction and forestry chains. In Brazil, the economy related to timber housing is still an unprecedented topic. Thus, the paper aimed to estimate scenarios to delimit the annual volume of this sector. Three years were studied from rare data available in the literature. From these national outcomes, projections for next years were developed. Multiple case approaches composed the literature-based methodology. As a result, the sector endured distinct internal and external economic instabilities, whose associated factors compiled political and sanitary crises, specially, with negative influences. The economy of timber housing reached an average about 500 million Dollars in 2014, being halved in 2015 due to the government crisis marked by the impeachment of the Brazilian president. From 2016 to 2019, small improvements were verified for this sector. In 2020, this favorable scenario was stagnated by the global Covid-19 pandemic. After 2021, a sectoral recovery is forecast based on positive expectations on the Brazilian economy. The two-year period of domestic presidential impeachment was more economically catastrophic than the current three-year phase of sanitary pandemic with global implications. From our economic forecasts, it was possible to attest that the Brazilian sector of timber houses is economically perceptible.

Beat back the health risks-and prepare for the looming economic crisis

This article presents a compilation of updates regarding the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic to the global timber industry, from manufacturing to international trade. The article cites the state of some countries regarding the current crisis, such as the hit on China's manufacturing due to slow export demand, US tropical hardwood imports dropping, hold in European timber imports, India's manufacturing shutdown, and the sharp drop on Japan's wooden door imports, among other things. Other subsequent effects on the timber crisis were cited as well, such as drops in housing sales, employee layoffs, temporary business suspension, and others. The consensus among analysts is that the global trade of wood products will be curtailed until at least mid-2021. The most severe declines are expected in the second and third quarters of 2020, with effects through to the first quarter of 2021, followed possibly by a slow recovery that could take as long as 2 years.