A bibliometric analysis of timber supply chain research

In recent years, the forestry industry has faced major challenges in the effective management of forest resources, improving economic performance, and reducing environmental impacts. To help researchers interested in the field of timber supply chain research better understand the global research situation, this study used bibliometric analysis to analyze 916 academic papers on timber supply chains in the Scopus journal database, covering the period from 2000 to 2020. The study revealed the publication trends, prolific and influential journals, countries, and authors of timber supply chain topics, as well as the development and potential research trends of timber supply chain research. The results show that research on timber supply chains is receiving increasing attention. From the perspective of research types, it can be roughly divided into traditional forest product supply chains, biomass supply chains, sustainable supply chains, and others types. In the early days, the main research direction was traditional forest product supply. In recent years, with the rise of the issue of greenhouse gas reduction, biomass energy has become increasingly important. Recent research has focused on sustainable supply chains, emphasizing the importance of balancing environmental, social, and economic factors. In terms of sustainable supply chains, current research mainly uses global data to prove the impact of international demand on deforestation. Future research is expected to focus on strategies such as improving the transparency of global supply chains, improving buyer consumption patterns, and exerting market pressure on producers to maintain the sustainability of these regional supply chains.