Certification S Impacts On Forests Stakeholders And Supply Chains

People like forests- they have many emotional and cultural attachments to them. They also like forest products - and need increasing quantities of them. But they often don't like, don't understand, and don't trust what comes in between: forest management, which lies at the interface of public services (biodiversity, watersheds, etc) and private goods (timber, food, etc). Certification was developed to independently verify the quality of forest management, to communicate this to market players, and so to improve market benefits for the products of good management. The growing influence of the Forest Stewardship Council is one of the most striking recent developments in forestry. Certification is increasingly common in all continents. But has it actually improved forest management? Has it created sufficient market incentives? Above all, has it enabled trust to develop between stakeholders, so that they can work together better, to build the institutions required for sustainable forest management? This book is the result of two years' study by IIED and collaborators in several countries: it provides evidence for considerable policy and institutional change as a result of certification, and the beginnings of change in forest and market practice.

The Sustainable Forestry Handbook is widely considered to be the essential aid to understanding and implementing sustainable forest management. Providing a clear and concise guide to the practicalities of implementing international standards for sustainable forest management, this fully updated second edition covers new Forest Stewardship Council requirements, High Conservation Value Forests, clearer requirements on pesticides and developments in policy and forest governance. Aimed at forest managers, and employing extensive cross referencing and easy-to-understand illustrations, this highly practical handbook explains in clear terms what the standards require forest managers to do and how they might go about implementing them.

This Occasional Paper assessed the social performance of nine forest management units (FMU) certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and compared it with the performance of nine similar noncertified FMUs in Cameroon, the Republic of the Congo and Gabon. Results showed that the longer one company remained in one place, the deeper social relations with the neighbouring population became. This in itself is conducive to an environment in which there is less conflict between the local population and logging companies. However, it is usually only after companies decided to pursue certification that several practical social improvements occurred. In particular, in certified FMUs, this study found better working and living conditions for workers and their families; more inclusive and better governed institutions for negotiations between the local population and logging companies, except with regard to conflict-resolution mechanisms; better managed and more effective benefit-sharing mechanisms; and innovative ways of dealing with problems related to infringement of customary uses. The complex historical and political-economic reality in which certification has developed in the Congo basin might well make issues of attribution and causality difficult to clarify. Yet results help establish a clear boundary that currently exists between certified and noncertified timber: The former is sourced in FMUs that implement not only legally mandated social standards but also voluntarily adopted ones that are superior and more effective. There should of course be no complacency from the FSC or logging companies with certified FMUs in comparing themselves with the ‘bottom,’ as the logic of the FSC is to reward more responsible forest managers who are assessed against ever-evolving standards, irrespective of the quality of national legislation. But one should also not forget that companies with certified FMUs in the study countries are competing less against a theoretical global logging company than against their neighbours, who daily produce the same species and sell on similar markets, albeit with much lower investments, especially those targeted to improve social performance. In this very competitive and uneven playing field, and with the scarce price premiums obtained so far, the evidence presented indicates that certification in the Congo basin has been able to push companies toward remarkable social progress.

It is increasingly recognized that the economic value of forests is not merely the production of timber. Forests provide other key ecosystem services, such as being sinks for greenhouse gases, hotspots of biodiversity, tourism and recreation. They are also vitally important in preventing soil erosion and controlling water supplies, as well as providing non-timber forest products and supporting the livelihoods of many local people. This handbook provides a detailed, comprehensive and broad coverage of forest economics, including traditional forest economics of timber production, economics of environmental role of forests, and recent developments in forest economics. The chapters are grouped into six parts: fundamental topics in forest resource economics; economics of forest ecosystems; economics of forests, climate change, and bioenergy; economics of risk, uncertainty, and natural disturbances; economics of forest property rights and certification; and emerging issues and developments. Written by leading environmental, forest, and natural resource economists, the book represents a definitive reference volume for students of economics, environment, forestry and natural resource economics and management.

This book analyses state-of-the-art techniques in business process management as drivers of advanced entrepreneurship, financial management, supply chain management, and sustainability management. The role of management in a rapidly-changing environment and the use of innovative methods and techniques to address and solve key management problems are also explored.

First published in 1995, The Forest Certification Handbook has become the landmark book concerning all aspects of forest and wood product certification from policy to business to in-the-field technical issues. Yet since first publication an enormous amount has happened in the field. This new second edition has been entirely rewritten to incorporate the changes over the past decade, and is a complete and up-to-date source of information on all aspects of developing, selecting and operating a forest certification programme that provides both market security and raises standards of forest management.