Forest-based industries
Topic: Secondary Activities: Manufacturing and Industrial Location · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 5 "Secondary Activities"
Meaning
Forest-based industries use products from forests as their raw material. Timber is used for furniture. Wood, bamboo and grass are used to make paper. Lac, a resin made by tiny insects living on trees, is used in the lac industry. Forest raw materials are bulky and costly to carry over long distances, so the mills are usually built near the forests.
Example
NCERT shows a pulp mill at Ketchikan in Alaska, USA. It sits close to the region's coniferous forests, which supply the wood. Scandinavia and Canada have similar forest-based industries.
Don't confuse with
- Agro-based industries: these use crops grown on farms, such as sugarcane and cotton. Forest-based industries use products taken from forests.
Related concepts
- Agro-based industries
- Food processing
- Mineral-based industries
- Chemical-based industries
- Petrochemical industry
- Animal-based industries