Mentors Comment:

This question is from the topic : the factors responsible for the location of primary, secondary, and tertiary sector industries in various parts of the world (including India) and quite a straightforward question too.

Start with general intro on how various factors affect the concentration of various industries and discuss the spread of paper and pulp industries there.

In the next subheadings, mention some of the general requirements of paper and pulp industries globally and what are the factors that are responsible of its location.

Then discuss why tropical regions have less paper and pulp industries compared to the temperate high latitudes. Points to discuss are the easy connectivity of the region through rivers and road to the ports; large forest areas with similar species of trees; rivers in higher reaches providing electricity which is necessary for this industry; flow of rivers towards ports etc.

Answer:

The important factors that determine whether a particular place is suitable for the development of industries are distance from raw material, nature of raw material, market demand, labor, energy, transport, capital availability, and government policy. This is also true for the paper and pulp industries all over the world. Despite the presence of significant amount of Floral Diversity and Density in the Tropics, most of the paper and pulp industries concentrated in the high latitudes of Northern Hemisphere

Factors affecting the location of paper and pulp industries are:

Forest area should be large enough to supply timber on a constant basis.
The ideal location for mill is riverside. It minimizes transportation problems.
One ton of newsprint may require 2000 kW hours of electricity. Therefore, a continuous supply of cheap electricity is a major requirement.
Paper and pulp mills are highly mechanized and require little manpower.
There should be a ready-made market for the paper pulp industry nearby, to be cost-effective.

Why higher latitudes have higher concentration of paper and pulp industries in comparison with Tropical regions:

In the temperate forest, commercial exploitation is easier as trees of the same species are concentrated in one particular area. Therefore, mass exploitation is easier in higher latitudes compared to tropical areas.
Softwood trees are found that are easier to chop. They are available in abundance in temperate forests.
Softwood is easy to float down the river streams. On the other hand, in the Amazon and Zaire Basin, some trees are so heavy, it is difficult to float logs, which results in high extraction costs.
The forest areas are connected by roads in high in the high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. Ground is covered by snowmaking it easier to push logs.
In tropical places, hardwood industries are not so developed. One of the reasons for this is the difficulty to lay down railway lines in the dense and impenetrable equatorial forests to transport hardwood logs.
The winter seasons make agriculture tough. Hence farmers find lumbering as a suitable alternative. The lumbering activity is highly mechanized due to which small manpower is needed.
The proximity to markets e.g. US, Russia, China, and India, meant that demand would be there. In tropical regions, more or less this market on large scale is unavailable.
Government policies on silviculture and strict regulation of the timber industry ensure that reforestation takes place and forests grow back.
In tropical areas, some tree-species are extremely valuable, but they are scattered. This heterogeneous supply of timber means the cost of the gathering is high.
In tropical belts, valuable trees are scattered throughout the jungle and you need some land transport before logs reach the rivers. But road construction is difficult due to rain, dense vegetation.
High latitudes have mountainous terrain, which means that they have fast-flowing rivers. It results in cheap hydroelectric power available, which is a must for paper pulp industries.

All these are the reasons why we see paper and pulp industries concentrated in higher latitude regions. They provide round the clock resources like trees and electricity, good markets and have excellent connectivity. These are general features of the spread of this industry. But, no single set of factors are responsible for its location globally. Factors in India and Britain or Canada with regard to paper pulp location are significantly different. India is relying more on bamboo and bagasse (from sugar mills), unlike other countries. But factors like power, connectivity, and labor are key and true for everywhere.