Pulp addiction? Perspectives of local regime actors on the development of the growing pulp industry in Uruguay

Abstract

The pulp and paper industry is one of the largest industries in the world. The main actors are a few multi-national enterprises operating in global markets. The industry is increasingly moving its production to the Global South, which alters global pulp value chains and the national socio-technical regimes of those countries. Additionally, the sustainability paradigm and transition to bioeconomy are challenging the pulp and paper industry of today. We conducted semi-structured expert interviews, analyzed, and interpreted the findings through the multi-level perspective framework. The study aims to advance knowledge on how the local regime actors inside the pulp regime perceive the development of the Uruguayan pulp industry since the MNEs established operations in Uruguay until 2018. Our findings suggest that local regime actors see that the Uruguayan pulp industry regime and its' development is highly influenced by multinational enterprises and the way they organized their global value chains. Uruguay's role in the global pulp industry value chain remains as a material resource provider, which has not improved the innovation capacity of the country particularly. The interviewees however feel that this is a key issue to develop in the country. Thus, we suggest that a transition to a sustainable bioeconomy in Uruguay would require steps forward in the immaterial resource base with closer cooperation between the industrial actors, the national research and education actors, and local small and medium-sized enterprises. In large-scale Global North–Global South investments a true collaboration between the multi-national enterprises and local regime actors is crucial for reaching a strongly sustainable bioeconomy.