Lithuania

Abstract

In Lithuania forests occupy about 2 million hectares, it consists 31.3% of total land area. 32.2% of forests are privately owned. Annual removal is 6.5 million m³. The main production of the Lithuanian woodworking industry is sawn wood, furniture. Lithuanian forests are not only the source of wood products but also non- wood forest products such as berries, mushrooms, game etc. Forests are owned by 222.2 thousands private forest owners and 42 state forest enterprises. Forest industry consists 873 companies; most of there are SME’s. The main factors effecting the competitiveness of forest-wood /non-wood/servicesconsumer chain from the point of view of entrepreneurship in Lithuania: rich wood and non-wood products resources; low level of round wood prices;, favourable geographical location; low cost of labour; the possibilities to get financial support from EU funds. Barriers to entrepreneurship: low level of domestic market development for wood and non-wood products (especially for small-sized round wood); the small-scale private forestry; high transaction cost for entrepreneurship; low capital resources (GDP per capita is low; biggest part of consumption expenditures fall to food and housing); low level of investments and innovations; very weak integration of forest sector to rural development programmes; low knowledge of business establishment and management; weak connections between research and business. The main problems and research questions for enterprise development in the forest sector: domestic market development strategies; urban consumers demand for forest products and services, integration of forestry into rural development; clasterisation of wood working industry; social structure of small-scale private forest owners; conflicts resolutions of multipurpose forest utilisation.