Open Knowledge (FSC OK)

Comparing the practice of two certification schemes in Swedish forestry, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and a forest owner-dominated competitor, the author explores the capacity of forest certification to ameliorate environmental degradation in forestry while attending to different stakeholder interests. Although the inclusiveness and stringency of the FSC might impede its ability to attend to industry needs, it has a greater capacity than the forest owner-dominated scheme to enhance environmental protection in forestry. Second, although competition for support and rule-making authority has resulted in convergence of the two schemes, the forest owner-dominated program has not adopted decision-making rules and structures to reduce the influence of forest owners in standard development and operation. Third, effective implementation of non-state forest governance schemes requires national forest law enforcement and well-functioning government administrations. This helps explain why forest certification initiatives have been more successful in Sweden and other developed countries than in developing countries.