Tricallotis, Marcos Antonio
Description
The forestry sector globally faces many sustainability
challenges. Forest certification arose two decades ago as a
market-based mechanism to address these issues. Two forest
certification schemes - the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and
Program for Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) - are now
well-established. However, there is a lack of comprehensive
studies about the impacts of these schemes on forestry
businesses.
This empirical research...[Show more] investigated this issue for the case of
Chile, which has a large export-oriented plantation sector and a
smaller domestically-focused native forest sector. It used a
framework modified from prior studies to assess the effectiveness
of the FSC and the PEFC-endorsed CERTFOR schemes in both forest
industry sectors, sampling 11 plantation forestry and 8 native
forestry businesses. Seventy two in-depth interviews were
conducted in 2013-4, with diverse industry actors and
stakeholders from both small and large scale enterprises.
Qualitative interview data were complemented by information from
the literature and previous studies.
The results show that certification has yielded more substantial
environmental changes in large plantation forestry businesses
than in small plantation and native forest operations. These
changes included cessation of deforestation, rehabilitation of
natural ecosystems, and reductions in the size of clear-cuts.
Socially, while in most cases certification has brought tangible
benefits to communities and encouraged a positive process of
dialogue between companies and their stakeholders, certification
alone has not solved some long-standing conflicts, such as
Indigenous claims and workers’ rights. Economically, although
certification has helped many companies to maintain/gain market
access, some reported increased costs from modifying their
operations to meet certification requirements. Companies did not
report achieving price premiums for certified products.
The FSC enjoys a better reputation than CERTFOR with many actors,
including respondents from the plantation forest industry, which
adopted CERTFOR in the outset. The FSC initially faced fierce
resistance from the large plantation forest industry, which had
been targeted by some ENGOs. Paralleling industry responses
elsewhere, large industry established its own standard, CERTFOR,
as an alternative to the FSC. During the last 5 years, however,
due to international market pressure, this industry sector also
adopted the FSC scheme. In these cases, the FSC is deepening the
changes initiated by CERTFOR. Therefore, in terms of the general
effectiveness criterion of my analytical framework, the FSC is
now more effective than CERTFOR.
Overall, certification in Chile is making more of a difference to
plantation forestry businesses than to native forestry
businesses. While both certification schemes have promoted legal
compliance, the FSC is encouraging improvements beyond legal
compliance. Notwithstanding these positive impacts, some
weaknesses remain in the governance of both schemes.
Certification has, generally, proved a more effective policy
instrument to address forest sustainability issues in Chile than
public policies. Public agencies, therefore, should promote
certification to help them to meet their sustainability goals.
However, to fully achieve it potential in realising
sustainability goals, certification also needs appropriate public
policies to provide a minimum legal framework that sets clear
rules, particularly to address social conflicts, otherwise its
effectiveness will be eroded over time.
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