The company currently has timber operations or offices in 44 U.S. states, owns six million acres of forest land in the U.S. South and Northwest and has a long-term license to 13 million acres in the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Alberta. Can t see the forest company for the trees Consistently ranked in the Forbes 100, Weyerhaeuser s tentacles reach far and wide. Forbes magazine estimated in 1988 that the family was worth well over a billion dollars. Although it is a multinational actor in both its exploitation of resources and its sales, the U.S.-based Weyerhaeuser has been careful to distance itself from its international operations. A close look at the international timber industry, however, reveals a series of international corporations formerly owned by Weyerhaeuser or run by former Weyerhaeuser employees that have as their sole purpose the supply of wood to the company, as well as Weyerhaeuser affiliates in Canada, Germany, Belgium, Italy, France, Greece, Spain, England, Guatemala, Venezuela, South Africa, Hong Kong, Russia, Japan, China, the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia.
Environmentalists charge the company is a major importer of tropical hard woods.
Weyerhaeuser remains a buyer through that company, but now we are unable to get a clear idea of the volume it imports. It is by no means accidental that Weyerhaeuser s holdings are not easily traceable to the parent company. The corporation has managed to separate itself from its international subsidiaries through a series of carefully planned divestments. The company has become expert in hiding its trail. Chesapeake Hardwood in Indonesia is an example of a Weyerhaeuser front corporation.