scholarly journals Procedural Factors Influencing Forest Certification Audits: An Empirical Study in Romania

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aureliu-Florin Hălălișan ◽  
Bogdan Popa ◽  
Iñaki Heras-Saizarbitoria ◽  
Olivier Boiral ◽  
Germán Arana-Landín ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Significant Influence ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Forest Certification ◽  
Forest Stewardship Council ◽  
Process Outcomes ◽  
Environmentally Sensitive ◽  
External Audits ◽  
Forest Stewardship ◽  
Audit Reports ◽  
Audit Team

In the recent decades, forest certification based on third-party external audits has gained momentum. This type of certification has been developed as a monitoring tool aimed at improving governance in corporate environmental management and differentiating products in the increasing environmentally sensitive markets. Although the scholarly literature has extensively analyzed the adoption and dissemination of forest certification, the findings of the external audits and certification practices remain under researched. On the basis of the analysis of 105 audit reports issued by accredited third-party certification bodies in Romania, this article sheds light on procedural factors that have significant influence on the characteristics of non-conformities (NCs) identified by Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) third party audits. Our research offers empirical evidence that certain procedural factors such as the type of assessment, auditing days, number of auditors, or the presence of foreign members in an audit team have a significant influence on the auditing process outcomes: number and grade of non-conformities, standard references, or methods of NC detection. The study opens interesting new lines of research—the influence of procedural or other types of contextual factors on certification outcomes—and provides indications on the effectiveness of the certification procedures and guidelines in certification process quality assurance.

Forest management certification in the Americas: difficulties in complying with the requirements of the FSC system

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-188
Author(s):  
V. M. Basso ◽  
B.G. Andrade ◽  
L.A.G. Jacovine ◽  
E.V. Silva ◽  
R.R. Alves ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Forest Management ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
The United States ◽  
Forest Certification ◽  
Forest Stewardship Council ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Environmental Requirements ◽  
Forest Stewardship ◽  
Audit Reports

'Forest management' aims to maintain forests as producers of goods and services, while ensuring their conservation for future generations. Forest certification has become one of the most widely used mechanisms to encourage and recognize this 'forest stewardship', with the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) among the most well-known systems worldwide. FSC is widely used in several Management Units on the American Continent, which is home to large forest areas. Therefore, we evaluated the main difficulties in complying with the principles of the FSC standard in 18 American countries based on verification of non-conformities generated in the process. The data were obtained from information contained in the certification audit reports available on the FSC official website, covering all organizations with valid certificates from 1995 to 2013. We found that the United States presented the lowest mean of non-conformities per audit, which may indicate better capacity of managers to implement practices of its forestry activities. Regarding the deviation type, the United States and Canada presented higher indices in relation to the adequacy of the environmental impacts (P6) of their activities. Meanwhile, the greatest non-conformities in the Central and South America countries occurred in the labor and social area (P4), followed by environmental issues (P6). All organizations presented some type of non-compliance with the criteria set by the FSC and needed to adapt. The major difficulties encountered were related to compliance with environmental requirements. The need to implement corrective actions to maintain the certificate demonstrates a change of management influenced by the forest certification process, thus contributing to minimizing socio-environmental impacts resulting from forest operations.

scholarly journals Effects of forest certification towards sustainable community forestry in Nepal

1970 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pem N Kandel
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Sustainable Forest Management ◽  
Community Forestry ◽  
Forest Certification ◽  
Managed Forests ◽  
Forest Stewardship Council ◽  
Community Forests ◽  
Sustainable Community ◽  
Forest Stewardship ◽  
Forest Users

In early 2005, 10,045 ha Community Forests (CFs) were certified in Bajhang and Dolakha districts of Nepal by using the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification scheme. After two years of forest certification, subsequent questions are being asked such as: What benefits have certification brought for the Forest Users Groups (FUGs)? What tangible differences are there in forest management system because of forest certification? and What lessons have been learnt from the certified forests? In an attempt to answer these questions, a study was carried out in April 2007 in Dolakha district where 11 (2,182 ha) community managed forests were certified in 2005. On the basis of field study from two certified forests (Vitteripakha and Suspa) of the district, this paper analyzes the effects of forest certification and its implications for enhancing Sustainable Community Forestry (SCF) in Nepal. Key words: Sustainable forest management, forest certification, community forestry Banko Janakari: A journal of forestry information for Nepal Vol.17(1) 2007 pp.11-16

Does forest certification conserve biodiversity?

Oryx ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. E. Gullison
Keyword(s):  
Biodiversity Conservation ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Market Access ◽  
Forest Products ◽  
Forest Certification ◽  
Managed Forests ◽  
Forest Stewardship Council ◽  
Tropical Countries ◽  
High Conservation ◽  
Forest Stewardship

Forest certification provides a means by which producers who meet stringent sustainable forestry standards can identify their products in the marketplace, allowing them to potentially receive greater market access and higher prices for their products. An examination of the ways in which certification may contribute to biodiversity conservation leads to the following conclusions: 1) the process of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certification generates improvements to management with respect to the value of managed forests for biodiversity. 2) Current incentives are not sufficient to attract the majority of producers to seek certification, particularly in tropical countries where the costs of improving management to meet FSC guidelines are significantly greater than any market benefits they may receive; available incentives are even less capable of convincing forest owners to retain forest cover and produce certified timber on a sustainable basis, rather than deforesting their lands for timber and agriculture. 3) At present, current volumes of certified forest products are insufficient to reduce demand to log high conservation value forests. If FSC certification is to make greater inroads, particularly in tropical countries, significant investments will be needed both to increase the benefits and reduce the costs of certification. Conservation investors will need to carefully consider the biodiversity benefits that will be generated from such investments, versus the benefits generated from investing in more traditional approaches to biodiversity conservation.

Private Rule-Making and the Politics of Accountability: Analyzing Global Forest Governance

2008 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 103-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sander Chan ◽  
Philipp Pattberg
Keyword(s):  
Power Sharing ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Forest Governance ◽  
Forest Stewardship Council ◽  
Global Environmental Politics ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Forest Stewardship ◽  
Private Certification ◽  
Rule Making ◽  
Global Forest Governance

Private rule-making features prominently on the research agenda of International Relations scholars today. The field of forest politics in particular has proven to be a lively arena for experimenting with novel policies (for example, third party certification and labeling) and procedures (for example, power-sharing in stakeholder bodies). This article focuses on the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), one of the earliest and most institutionalized private certification schemes, in order to assess the role and relevance of accountability politics for global forest governance. Specifically, we ask three related questions: first, what role did a deepening accountability crisis and the resulting reconstruction of accountability play in the formation of the FSC? Second, how is accountability organized within the FSC? And finally, what accountability outcomes emerge as a result of the FSC's policies and operations? The article closes with some reflections about the limitations of private-based accountability in global environmental politics.

scholarly journals Theory-of-Change Development for the Evaluation of Forest Stewardship Council Certification of Sustained Timber Yields from Natural Forests in Indonesia

Forests ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 547 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Romero ◽  
Francis Putz
Keyword(s):  
Theory Of Change ◽  
Forest Conversion ◽  
Natural Forests ◽  
Forest Stewardship Council ◽  
Apparent Lack ◽  
Forest Stewardship ◽  
Stock Depletion ◽  
Forest Enterprises ◽  
Theories Of Change ◽  
Audit Reports

To illustrate the importance of theories-of-change (ToCs) for evaluation of conservation interventions, we consider the global ToC from the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and then develop a more explicit ToC focused on the sustained timber yield (STY) aspiration for natural forest management in Indonesia. We use these ToCs to consider certification implementation processes vis-à-vis indicators for STY extracted from FSC’s Indonesian Stewardship Standard that mentions STY explicitly in 45 and implicitly in 21 of 237 indicators. Analysis of 38 audit reports about 23 enterprises (2001–2017) revealed that only 77 of 504 major non-conformities assigned by auditors addressed STY. This apparent lack of attention to STY is surprising given the exhaustion of timber stocks in many production forests and the closure of many forest enterprises over the past two decades, but our ToC reveals numerous unsatisfied and unsatisfiable assumptions in certification that preclude detection of unsustainable harvests. Furthermore, compliance with governmental regulations on harvest intensities does not allow full timber recovery. To sustain yields, logging intensities need to be reduced and/or silvicultural treatments applied to increase yields, both of which reduce short-term profits. Declining yields might be accepted if the capacity of logged forests to grow timber is not impaired, but forest abandonment due to timber stock depletion is worrisome if it fosters illegal forest conversion.

scholarly journals Forest Certification, its Scheme and Process

1970 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 125-132
Author(s):  
Bishnu Acharya
Keyword(s):  
Forest Certification ◽  
Forest Stewardship Council ◽  
Certification Process ◽  
The People ◽  
Forest Stewardship

Forest Certification (FC) is a process of certifying any forest by an independent party. During the 80’s when forest was heavily destructed, the need of the forest certification was felt, and was accepted worldwide. he interest for FC varies as per the needs of the people and/or organizations involved. Various organizations are involved in the certification process, major ones being Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), Program for the Endorsement of the Forest Certification (PEFC) and other process vary from country to country. This article deals with the certification bodies, process involved and the responsibilities of the stakeholders.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/init.v4i0.5546The Initiation Vol.4 2011 125-132

scholarly journals Assessment and Monitoring Protocols to Guarantee the Maintenance of Biodiversity in Certified Forests: A Case Study for FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) Forests in Southwestern Spain

Forests ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 705
Author(s):  
Antonio Sánchez-Almendro ◽  
Pablo Hidalgo ◽  
Rosario Galán ◽  
José Carrasco ◽  
Javier López-Tirado
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Sustainable Forest Management ◽  
Forest Certification ◽  
Forest Stewardship Council ◽  
Conservation Areas ◽  
Assessment And Monitoring ◽  
High Conservation ◽  
Conservation Values ◽  
Forest Stewardship ◽  
Monitoring Protocols

(1) Biodiversity, sustainable development and nature conservation are fundamental issues nowadays. All companies, administrations, governments and international organisations take these issues into consideration. Sustainable forest management always requires a compromise between profitability and conservation and in this fragile equilibrium, forest certification plays a key scheme. This sustainable management is of great importance in the European Union (EU), with the Forest Stewardship Council playing a fundamental role in forest certification. This certification forms the basis of the ecosystem conservation and improvement strategy in Ence, Energía y Celulosa, the leading company dedicated to the production of eucalyptus in Spain; (2) A three-phase protocol (identification of High Conservation Values, assessment of conservation areas and monitoring program), has been developed, providing clear, objective criteria, particularly concerning FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) Principle 9, the primary goal being the development and application of these objective criteria in the Ence conservation areas in the province of Huelva (Spain). One of the main criteria for habitat classification was correspondence with the habitats listed in Annex I of the Habitats Directive. The compatibility between forest exploitation management and conservation proposed by the Natura 2000 network encouraged us to use this methodology for the identification, classification and assessment of High Conservation Values considered in FSC forest certification: Principle 9; (3) The study encompasses 183 forest management units covering 52,022 ha, with a total of 11,847.45 ha being identified as High Conservation Value Areas. Through the identification and assessment of the conservation areas, the described methodology played a crucial role in demonstrating the positive impact of Ence’s certified forest management on the conservation of biological diversity; (4) This study demonstrates that an objective and reliable identification, assessment and monitoring methodology, with a proven high degree of accuracy in the location and characterisation of interesting and representative habitats in the region, can be implemented. Due to its objectivity, this strategy can be easily applied to other European sustainable forest management sites and possibly to other countries outside the EU.

Performing an FSC audit

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
William Cook ◽  
Esther Turnhout ◽  
Séverine van Bommel
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Forest Conservation ◽  
Forest Certification ◽  
Forest Stewardship Council ◽  
Dual Purpose ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
Forest Stewardship ◽  
Back Stage ◽  
Insight Into

PurposeThe Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) intends to promote responsible forestry through its certification scheme. The primary engine that drives this promotion is auditing. Audits serve a dual purpose: they make forest managers accountable for their claim of meeting the FSC standard, and they make the actions of auditors and auditee account-able, or able to be put into an account. The latter of these is rarely investigated, despite it being crucial to understanding how FSC audits are done.Design/methodology/approachThis article examines FSC forest certification audits as practices where the FSC standards gain meaning. In-depth analysis of these practices enables insight into how different values related to forest certification and auditing are articulated and negotiated in practice, characterizing particular modes of auditing. In this paper, the authors examine the practices of FSC forest management auditors in multi-day audits in Africa and in Spain. Their materials were analyzed and coded using Goffman’s elements of dramaturgy.FindingsThe authors’ findings show that auditing practices entail a series of nested performances in which the auditors and auditees interact together and in which front stage and back stage performances constantly alternate as auditors and auditees perform for each other and simultaneously for an absent audience.Originality/valueThe authors’ analysis demonstrates how in these performances, professional values related to following auditing rules and ensuring that audits are rendered account-able in a particular way take a prominent position. This risks overshadowing the accountability of the FSC system which is ultimately grounded in its ambition to improve forest conservation and management.

The efficacy of forest certification: Perceptions of Canadian forest products retailers

2011 ◽  
Vol 87 (05) ◽  
pp. 636-643 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Chen ◽  
Anna Tikina ◽  
Robert Kozak ◽  
John Innes ◽  
Peter Duinker ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Forest Products ◽  
Wood Products ◽  
Iso 14001 ◽  
Forest Certification ◽  
Forest Stewardship Council ◽  
Market Place ◽  
Certified Wood ◽  
Forest Stewardship ◽  
Nation Wide Survey

A nation-wide survey of wood products retailers was conducted to examine their perceptions related to forest certification and its impacts in the market place. Four widely accepted forest certification standards were taken into account: International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) 14001, Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), and the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) Z809 Standard. The survey inquired about the economic impacts of forest certification, namely wood purchasing policies and the potential for price premiums on certified wood products. The responses indicated that most retailers had no particular purchasing policies for certified products. However, they reported up to a 20% price premium on certain certified products, although the number of consumers who request certified wood products was small (less than 10%). The retailers also indicated that the most important reasons for buying or selling certified forest products revolved around improved company image, being an environmental leader in the field, and maintaining or increasing market share. Finally, respondents felt that forest certification had minimal impacts on the social aspects of forest management, while the environmental and economic aspects of forest management were perceived to be subject to more marked changes.

The State Strikes Back

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Bartley
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Forest Certification ◽  
Documentary Evidence ◽  
Forest Stewardship Council ◽  
Forest Land ◽  
Land Grabs ◽  
Forest Stewardship ◽  
High Standards ◽  
Blind Spots

This chapter examines the rise of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification in China, as well as the challenges of implementation and competition from a state-sponsored homegrown system. Despite challenges to its operations, the FSC grew rapidly in China, especially in comparison to Indonesia. To make sense of this puzzle, the chapter identifies a “dual logic of certifying in authoritarian places”, in which the state crowds the space of private regulators but also edits out the messiness and contention that can otherwise impede certification. Using interview and documentary evidence, the chapter identifies the implications and blind spots of forest certification in China and shows how authoritarian governance suppressed underlying ambiguity and conflict over rights to forest land, making it easier for apparent land grabs to be certified as compliant with the FSC’s high standards.

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