"Prepared by World Resources Institute Tightening global timber supplies and rising concerns over the loss of natural forests are fueling investment worldwide in plantation forestry. Plantations, which produce relatively standardized wood fiber, offer a variety of advantages. Typically, they are more predictable, reliable, and malleable than natural forests and promise faster financial returns. The Southern Hemisphere, with its relatively favorable growing conditions and labor and lands costs, has emerged as a center of plantation fiber production. Some of the most impressive plantation forestry is taking place in Brazil, under the management of that country's growing pulp and paper industry. As this comparative examination of two Brazilian pulp producers, Aracruz Celulose S.A. and Riocell S.A., demonstrates, companies face a wide range of environmental, social, and economic forces as they try to balance efficiency and sustainability in plantation forestry."