Sustainable Forest Management Certification

Ensuring Sustainability in Forestry: certification of forests details the concepts and approaches required to meet the desired international standards of forest certification. It brings together important issues related to forest certification, which need to be applied and utilized in the context of forests in India in the present scenario. It also focuses on economic factors, greening of certification processes, and the interface between technical and business knowledge. Drawing on a wealth of information provided by valuable studies across the globe, this volume discusses forest certification and its impact on conservation and development of biodiversity. It is a comprehensive and detailed guide for forest managers, owners, and consultants; government foresters; and forest product traders.

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 program that provides both market security and raises standards of forest management.

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 often-claimed environmental and social benefits of forest certification remain to be empirically evaluated. Despite numerous publications on the impacts of tropical forest certification, virtually all are based on secondary sources of information and not on field-based measurements. This paper proposes an empirical research framework for a carefully designed field-based evaluation of the ecological, social, economic, and political impacts of tropical forest management certification taking into account location-specific contextual factors which shape certification outcomes. The paper also suggests that solid methodological quantitative and qualitative approaches be used to build proper counterfactuals on which to base the comparisons for inferring impacts, all informed by a thorough theory-of-change and through processes that bring stakeholders together. The proposed research framework represents a first step towards the design and future implementation of evaluation research in the context of tropical forest certification on a global basis. It is hoped the research framework proposed contributes to learning from past mistakes, building on lessons learned and enhancing decision-making towards the maintenance of forest values over the long term, and for the benefit of society as a whole.

Overview of the current situation in forest certification. Substantive differences between the schemes. International requirements and validation mechanisms. Impacts and issues for tropical timber-producing countries. Options for tropical timber producers.

Handbook on Forest Certification, a thorough research work, discusses in detail the concepts and approaches required to meet the desired international standards of forest certification. It covers those aspects of forest certification that are practised globally and need to be applied in the emerging context of forests in India. The book focuses on changing global perspective on forest resources, importance and need for sustainable management of forests, increasing consumer awareness, and dealing with preferences for certified forest products. Drawing on a wealth of information provided by valuable studies across the globe, this book discusses sustainable forest management and forest certification and their impact on conservation and development of biodiversity. It is a comprehensive and detailed guide for forest managers, forest owners, practitioners, forest-based industries, academicians, students and researchers, consultants, and policy makers for the forestry sector in India and South Asia. Key features: • Discusses status of forest resources as well as sustainability and forestry • Explains essentials of forest certification and process and forest certification schemes • Dwells on the extent of forest certification and certified timber market and certification of non-timber forest products • Presents framework for forest certification in India • Assesses challenges and potentials of forest certification Contents: 1. Status of Forest Resources: World and India 2. Sustainability and Forestry 3. Management of Forests in India: A Historical Perspective 4. Essentials of Forest Certification: Concept, Evolution, Elements, and Process 5. Forest Certification Schemes 6. Extent of Forest Certification and Certified Timber Market 7. Certification of Non-timber Forest Products 8. Framework for Forest Certification in India 9. Stakeholder Expectations and Economics of Forest Certification 10. Sustainability and Forest Certification 11. Challenges and Potential of Forest certification References Index About the Author

Forest certification has been widely accepted as a tool that would encourage industrial and non-industrial management of resources in an environmentally acceptable, socially beneficial and economically viable manner. Much has been written on certification yet five issues have been missing, which this book addresses: an analysis of the scientific basis for the certification standards; a formal and mechanistic incorporation of social and natural system sustainability as part of the standards; the rationale for the different sets of standards that are currently being used to certify governmental, industrial and non-industrial organizations; the success of the different sets of standards in assessing the environmental acceptability, social benefits and economic viability of the managed system; and, the difficulty of certifying small landowners with current protocols. Forest Certification examines the historical roots of forest certification, the factors that guide the development of certification protocols, the players involved in certification, the factors determining the customers to be certified, and the benefits of certification. The book also covers the terminology and other issues intrinsic to certification that direct the structure of standards, the similarities between indicators of different human disturbances within the ecosystem/landscape and certification standards, and, finally, a case study evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of existing certification protocols. Forest Certification is unique in its analysis of the scientific basis for the structure of the forest certification protocols. It documents the roles of human values in the development of assessment protocols but demonstrates how elements of existing protocols should be used to produce non-value based standards.

Setting the Standard chronicles the emergence and implications of an ambitious experiment in civil-society-led global governance: the Forest Stewardship Council. Drawing on a pioneering case study of this negotiation process, this book explores the challenges associated with implementing the FSC's global vision on the ground. Indeed, the establishment of an FSC standard for British Columbia was achieved only after difficult and protracted negotiations at the regional, national, and global levels. This important work also undertakes a detailed comparative analysis of FSC standards and standard-setting processes elsewhere and grapples with the broader implications for global governance and regulatory theory.