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- Challenges for Forest Certification and Community Forestry in Mexico (University of Texas, 2005) Type Book Chapter
- Contribution of woodfuel to meet the energy needs of the population of Central Africa: prospects for sustainable management of available resources (Joint Research Centre (European Commission), 2012) Type Book Chapter
- Costs and benefits of forest certification in the Americas (Nova Science Publishers, Inc, 2009) Type Book ChapterForest certification provides a means to ensure that forests are managed to achieve economic, environmental, and social goals that are the foundation of sustainable forest management and sustainable development. We collected data on forest certification for the major systems in the Americas, including the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and the United States, and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) in the United States and Canada, Sistema Brasileiro de Certificação Florestal (Cerflor) in Brazil, and Sistema Chileno de Certificación Forestal (Certfor) in Chile. Reported average total costs varied considerably depending on forest ownership size, certification system, and country. Median average total costs ranged from $6.45 to $39.31 per ha per year for small tracts of less than 4,000 hectares. The large ownerships of 400,000 ha or more had median costs of $0.07 to $0.49 per ha per year. Mean costs were greater than median costs, due to large expenses for a few firms. Regression results indicated that average total costs for certification were a function of ownership size, but did not vary significantly among certification systems or country, although the sample of reporting firms was small for finding statistical differences. Opinions about benefits of forest certification generally classed firm strategic or management reasons highest, organizational learning factors second, signaling stewardship to external groups third, and improved prices or markets last, but all broad groups were considered important benefits of certification. The largest perceived disadvantages of forest certification were its time and audit costs, and no other disadvantage was rated more than somewhat important. Certified forest firms had relatively evenly mixed opinions about whether certification benefits exceeded costs, but a large majority stated that they would continue forest certification in the future.
- Forest certification as a global civil society regulatory institution. (Forstbuch, 2002) Type Book Chapter
- Forest Certification in Guatemala (Yale University Press, 2006) Type Book ChapterThe forest certification process in Guatemala has largely been confined to the forest concessions in the Maya Biosphere Reserve (MBR), representing 95% of the country's certified forest area. Forest certification in Guatemala is unique in that certification in accordance with the scheme of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is mandatory for both communities and industrial groups to obtain and maintain forest concessions in the MBR. Unlike other countries where forest certification has almost exclusively been advanced in a joint effort between non-governmental organizations, development projects and the private sector, the case of Guatemala shows the important role state agencies can play as agents backing the process. Despite initial resistance, the National Council for Protected Areas (CONAP) as the state agency in charge of the Maya Biosphere Reserve permitted forest management in the MBR provided that it would be subjected to FSC certification. Sixteen forest management units covering close to half a million hectares of broadleaved forests have since been certified, including 10 community concessions, 4 cooperatives or Municipal Ejidos and 2 industrial concessions. In addition, two forest plantations outside the MBR have been certified. Notwithstanding the considerable progress towards sustainable forest management in Petén, economic benefits as returns to certification investments have generally not lived up to expectations. Moreover, forest certification has yet to gain momentum outside the Maya Biosphere Reserve where the process is voluntary. This requires a concerted effort between the various stakeholders involved, thorough cost- benefit analysis in each individual case, and the development of integrated supply chains of certified forest products. Towards this end, it is suggested to set up learning alliances between key actors in the certification process, such as managers from certified management units and processing plants, non-governmental and governmental organizations, certification and accreditation bodies, donor agencies, research institutions, and business development service providers.
- Forest Certification in Russia (Yale University Press, 2006) Type Book ChapterEven though Russian society and timber markets do not have entrenched values of environmentalism, market forces have cross-border influence and through certification sustainable forestry can be imported to Russia. There are national and Pan European initiatives in Russia, which are in the initial stages with processes much less developed then FSC. FSC is also in the early stages. However it has the potential to develop in the European part of Russia. It is driven both by NGO networks and business. This paper shows the detailed processes through which FSC is imported to Russia and chains of supply are linked to chains of demands. It compares the effectiveness of FSC adoption in the European part of Russia versus that in Asian Russia, where markets show less sensitivity to the value of sustainable forestry. The paper demonstrates an essential role of environmental NGO networks, especially WWF and Greenpeace, in promoting FSC. The paper analyzes how new institutions related to FSC are taking hold in Russia and the economic, social and environmental impacts of certification.
- Forest Stewardship Council Certification of natural forest management in Indonesia: Required improvements, costs, incentives, and barriers (IUFRO, 2014) Type Book ChapterVoluntary, third-party, market-based forest certification has helped promote the transition from forest exploitation for timber to multiple-objective forest management in Indonesia. Here we describe the paths followed to Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) certification of responsible management by five forestry concessions in Kalimantan, Indonesia. We found that while only modest improvements in forest management practices would be required for the concessions to comply with governmental regulations, much more substantial improvements were needed for FSC certification. Making these improvements was expensive mostly because the concessions lacked the required technical capacity and thus relied on support from outside institutions. We estimated that the direct costs of certification, half of which were paid by various donors, amounted to USD 300 000 to USD 700 000 per concession, with averages of USD 4.76/ha and USD 0.1/m3. Due to the minimal financial benefits the concessionaires received from certification of their forest products, external funds for the required technical inputs and audits were essential, but the business and marketing strategies of companies linked to the concessions also favoured certification. Forest certification is expanding in Indonesia for a variety of reasons, mostly related to partnerships between the private sector and civil society as well as in response to emerging synergies with the newly enacted government regulations (e.g. verification of timber legality and mandatory certification) and concerns about corporate reputations. Despite these facilitating factors, many barriers to certification remain, including unclear forest land tenure, perverse government regulations, high costs, lack of technical capacity, and scarcity of "green premiums" for certified forest products.
- Forest Stewardship Council indicators: Development by Multi-stakeholder process assures consistency and diversity (International Union for Conservation of Nature, 2016) Type Book ChapterIn more than 80 countries, forest operations are certified as being managed in accordance with the standards of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). This paper explains how FSC addresses regional and national differences in forest legislation, environmental conditions, social and political contexts, and stakeholder expectations in developing forest management standards. It describes how stakeholders reached consensus on the first set of FSC Principles and Criteria, the foundation of FSC's framework for forest stewardship, and how indicators are now negotiated to fill the framework and ensure that national forest management standards fit their context. It concludes with a discussion of why FSC's certification system, though voluntary, has been able to improve forest management by engaging stakeholders in developing national standards that reflect local conditions and community interests.
- How does FSC certification of forest management benefit conservation of biodiversity? (Taylor & Francis, 2019) Type Book Chapter
- Indirect Impacts of Certification on Tropical Forest Management and Public Policies (Forstbuch, 2003) Type Book ChapterForest certification has been conceived as a new instrument to promote sound forest management practices in all forest types, ranging from boreal to tropical rainforests (Viana et al. 1996; de Camino and Alfaro 1998; Bass 2000). In the process of structuring the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), it was hypothesized that forest certification would become a catalyst of change of tropical forest management (Viana 1995). The objective of this paper is to assess this prediction in relation to natural forest management.
- The parallel evolution of community forest management in the Brazilian Amazon and FSC certification (Forest Trends, 2003) Type Book ChapterThis article focuses on community forest management of natural forests in the Brazilian Amazon. The nature of community management that encompasses small-scale production, organized in some collective fashion, could be explored further in the future to also cover the experiences of small-scale forest management development linked to forest companies in southern Brazil, as well as the experiences with forest restoration associations. These groups account for more than fifty thousand producers in Brazil.
- Towards More Sustainable Infrastructure: Challenges and Opportunities in Ape Range States of Africa and Asia (Cambridge University Press, 2018) Type Book Chapter