Resolute Forest Products (French:Produits forestiers Résolu), formerly known as AbitibiBowater Inc. is a pulp and paper manufacturer headquartered in Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

, Quebec

Quebec

Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, formed by the merger of Bowater

Bowater

Bowater was an American pulp and paper company based in Greenville, South Carolina. Bowater had 12 pulp and paper mills in the United States, Canada and South Korea and 13 North American sawmills. It had approximately 10,000 employees...

 and Abitibi-Consolidated

Abitibi-Consolidated

Abitibi Consolidated Inc. was a Canadian pulp and paper company based in Montreal, Quebec. Abitibi-Consolidated was formed from the merger of Abitibi-Price Inc. and Stone Consolidated Corp...

, which was announced 29 January 2007. At the time, AbitibiBowater was the third largest pulp and paper company in North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

, and the eighth largest in the world. On 16 April 2009 the company filed for creditor protection

Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....

 in the United States and similar protection under the Companies' Creditors Arrangements Act in Canada, eventually reporting debt of about US$6 billion. The company won court approval for $206 million to finance restructuring. AbitibiBowater emerged from creditor protection on 9 December 2010 and returned to profitability. On 11 October 2011 AbitibiBowater announced it was be changing its operating name to Resolute Forest Products effective 7 November 2011.

Forest Management

On 18 May 2010, Resolute Forest Products joined 29 other organizations including Greenpeace and The David Suzuki Foundation to become a founding member of the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement (CBFA). The agreement formalizes the members’ commitments to protecting the diversity of ecosystems and wildlife within the Boreal region. Prior to the signing of the CBFA, the company was criticized by some environmental groups for the loss of old-growth and intact forests, and related impacts on threatened wildlife including woodland caribou.

The company website reports Resolute Forest Products manages “approximately 14.9 million hectares (36.9 million acres) of forestland in North America (as of June 30, 2011). 98% of this area is public land in Canada, managed through long-term forest management arrangements that include a public input process and regular periodic government auditing.”

Resolute Forest Products is a member of the Forest Products Association of Canada

Forest Products Association of Canada

Founded in 1913, the Canadian Pulp and Paper Association changed its name to the Forest Products Association of Canada in February 2001.The Forest Products Association of Canada , is a trade association which represents Canada's wood, pulp, and paper producers both nationally and internationally...

.