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Understanding Forest Certification Standards

Forest certification is a process that results in a written statement certifying the origin and status of raw wood materials. It is validated by an independent third party. Principles are fundamental rules of forest management, while criteria are aspects requiring adherence to principles. Indicators are parameters used to assess criteria. Standards are sets of principles, criteria, and indicators that promote sustainable forest management and provide references for assessment. There are two main types of certification: systems-based, which evaluates management systems and legal compliance, and performance-based, which evaluates on-the-ground impacts and exceeds government standards. Certification is an emerging approach alongside other regulatory methods to improve forest management and is increasingly adopted through market linkage. It represents trends in global governance as

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Jeffrey Ferriggi
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106 views2 pages

Understanding Forest Certification Standards

Forest certification is a process that results in a written statement certifying the origin and status of raw wood materials. It is validated by an independent third party. Principles are fundamental rules of forest management, while criteria are aspects requiring adherence to principles. Indicators are parameters used to assess criteria. Standards are sets of principles, criteria, and indicators that promote sustainable forest management and provide references for assessment. There are two main types of certification: systems-based, which evaluates management systems and legal compliance, and performance-based, which evaluates on-the-ground impacts and exceeds government standards. Certification is an emerging approach alongside other regulatory methods to improve forest management and is increasingly adopted through market linkage. It represents trends in global governance as

Uploaded by

Jeffrey Ferriggi
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© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Forest certification, should be understood as a process, which results in a written

quality statement (a certificate) attesting to the origin of raw wood material and
its status and/or qualifications following validation by an independent third party.
A principle is a fundamental rule or aspect of forest management. Criteria are to
be understood as states or aspects of forest management requiring adherence to
a principle of forest certification. Indicators are qualitative or quantitative
parameters, which are assessed in relation to a criterion. Standards are a set of
principles, criteria and indictors that serve as a tool to promote sustainable forest
management, as a basis for monitoring and reporting or as a reference for
assessment of actual forest management.

Types of certification

• Systems/Process-based: approach is designed to evaluate whether systems


are in place that allow forest managers/owners to achieve and review targets they
have set. Usually, it is the system itself, and not necessarily the forest that is
assessed to determine the success of the standard (eg Program for the
Endorsement of Forest Certification Schemes - PEFC) and including:

• A hybrid with some performance requirements but predominantly systems


based (e.g. Australian Forestry Standard, a PEFC member)

 “Quality assurance” useful for markets that require forest products


guaranteed to come from legal sources and

 Endorsed by Government; but


✖ Because landowner and industry groups chose which other stakeholders
participate, they ultimately control the PEFC and its country programmes and is
not endorsed by environment groups;

• Performance-based: management standards are designed to evaluate


whether management practices in the forest itself meet specified ecological and
social performance measures, and reduce the impacts of logging (e.g. Forest
Stewardship Council).

 “Eco-label” useful for markets that have clients seeking products from
managed forests that exceed Government requirements and are

 Endorsed by third parties (e.g. Environment groups, Indigenous Peoples’


organisations, etc.).

 As a contrast to PEFC the FSC has equally distributed voting powers between
members, who are situated into three equally weighted “chambers” (economic,
social, environmental).

Certification should be seen within the context of an emerging variety of


regulatory approaches towards improving forest management, and which are
encouraging similar developments in other sectors. These are driven by NGOs and
industry associations with rather than exclusively by government, and although
voluntary, are becoming increasingly adopted through their linkage to markets
and governmental management systems. Although forest certification can be seen
as a governance system for regulating forest managament it is best understood as
a system of regulatory law making, with the institutional focus being around
developing – and certifying – standards of forest management. Forest certification
is a significant indicator of broader trends in the administrative law of global
governance, posing the question as to how political legitimacy is framed in
transnational regulation: who is in charge? Is it the state, the private sector, or
civil society, or all three, and what does this mean for democratic decision-making
regarding matters of environmental protection and regulation in an era of
globalisation?

Tim Cadman MA is currently studying for a PhD in the School of Government,


University of Tasmania and has fifteen years’ background in forest conservation
and certification. He was the country representative of the Forest Stewardship
Council in Australia for three years, and served on the technical reference group of
the Australian Forestry Standard. Six hundred and fifty thousand hectares of
timber resources in Australia have been certified under the FSC system, and a
similar amount under the AFS.

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