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Forest Certification: Toward Common Standards?

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Listed:
  • Fischer, Carolyn

    (Resources for the Future)

  • Sedjo, Roger

    (Resources for the Future)

  • Jawahar, Puja
  • Aguilar , Francisco

Abstract

The forestry industry provides a good illustration of the active roles that industry associations, environmental nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), national governments, and international organizations can play in developing and promoting codes of conduct that are formally sanctioned and certified. It also reflects some of the challenges of disseminating codes of conduct in developing countries and ensuring market benefits from certification. We describe the emergence of forest certification standards, outline current certification schemes, and discuss the role of major corporations in creating demand for certified products. We also discuss the limited success of certification and some of the obstacles to its adoption in developing countries. The current diversity of forest certification programs and ecolabeling schemes has created a costly, less-than-transparent system that has been largely ineffective in terms of the initial goals of reducing tropical deforestation and illegal logging. Some steps have been taken toward harmonization of different certification criteria as well as endorsement and mutual recognition among existing forest certification programs. However, it is unlikely that standardization alone can overcome other, more serious barriers to certification in developing countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Fischer, Carolyn & Sedjo, Roger & Jawahar, Puja & Aguilar , Francisco, 2005. "Forest Certification: Toward Common Standards?," RFF Working Paper Series dp-05-10, Resources for the Future.
  • Handle: RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-05-10
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sedjo, Roger & Swallow, Stephen, 1999. "Eco-Labeling and the Price Premium," RFF Working Paper Series dp-00-04, Resources for the Future.
    2. Robert A. Phillips & R. E. Freeman (ed.), 2010. "Stakeholders," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13706.
    3. Koczy, Laszlo A., 2006. "The core can be accessed with a bounded number of blocks," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 56-64, December.
    4. Tim Bartley, 2003. "Certifying Forests and Factories: States, Social Movements, and the Rise of Private Regulation in the Apparel and Forest Products Fields," Politics & Society, , vol. 31(3), pages 433-464, September.
    5. Lars H. Gulbrandsen, 2004. "Overlapping Public and Private Governance: Can Forest Certification Fill the Gaps in the Global Forest Regime?," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 4(2), pages 75-99, May.
    6. Roger A. Sedjo & Stephen K. Swallow, 2002. "Voluntary Eco-Labeling and the Price Premium," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 78(2), pages 272-284.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Rana, Pushpendra & Sills, Erin O., 2024. "Inviting oversight: Effects of forest certification on deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    2. Aguilar, Francisco X. & Vlosky, Richard P., 2007. "Consumer willingness to pay price premiums for environmentally certified wood products in the U.S," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(8), pages 1100-1112, May.
    3. Robert Innes & George Frisvold, 2009. "The Economics of Endangered Species," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 1(1), pages 485-512, September.
    4. Rick Harbaugh & John W. Maxwell & Beatrice Roussillon, 2011. "Label Confusion: The Groucho Effect of Uncertain Standards," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 57(9), pages 1512-1527, February.
    5. Parry, Ian & Fischer, Carolyn & Jawahar, Puja & Aguilar , Francisco, 2005. "Corporate Codes of Conduct: Is Common Environmental Content Feasible?," RFF Working Paper Series dp-05-09, Resources for the Future.
    6. van Kempen, Luuk & Muradian, Roldan & Sandóval, César & Castañeda, Juan-Pablo, 2009. "Too poor to be green consumers? A field experiment on revealed preferences for firewood in rural Guatemala," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(7), pages 2160-2167, May.
    7. Cai, Zhen & Aguilar, Francisco X., 2013. "Meta-analysis of consumer's willingness-to-pay premiums for certified wood products," Journal of Forest Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 15-31.
    8. Carlson, Anna & Palmer, Charles, 2016. "A qualitative meta-synthesis of the benefits of eco-labeling in developing countries," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 129-145.
    9. Damette, Olivier & Delacote, Philippe, 2011. "Unsustainable timber harvesting, deforestation and the role of certification," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(6), pages 1211-1219, April.
    10. Rodrigue, Joel & Soumonni, Omolola, 2014. "Deforestation, foreign demand and export dynamics in Indonesia," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(2), pages 316-338.
    11. Ugochukwu, Albert I. & Hobbs, Jill E. & Phillips, Peter W.B. & Kerr, William A., 2018. "Technological Solutions to Authenticity Issues in International Trade: The Case of CITES Listed Endangered Species," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 730-739.
    12. Vásquez Lavin, Felipe & Barrientos, Manuel & Castillo, Álvaro & Herrera, Iván & Ponce Oliva, Roberto D., 2020. "Firewood certification programs: Key attributes and policy implications," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    forest certification; codes of conduct; Forest Stewardship Council; PEFC; Sustainable Forestry Initiative; sustainable forest management;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q23 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Forestry
    • Q56 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environment and Development; Environment and Trade; Sustainability; Environmental Accounts and Accounting; Environmental Equity; Population Growth
    • L73 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Primary Products and Construction - - - Forest Products
    • Q13 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Agricultural Markets and Marketing; Cooperatives; Agribusiness

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