Forest Certification

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Forest Certification

• Michael R. Wagner
• Regents Professor
• International Forestry
• Northern Arizona University
• Flagstaff, Arizona

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What is Forest Certification?

• The process of verifying that a forest and
  products from that forest meets the requirements
  of a standard.

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Historical Development of Certification

• Global awareness of deforestation in the 1980s
• NGO efforts to organize tropical wood boycotts
• United Nations Conference on Environment and
  Development (UNCED), 1992
• Intergovernmental Panel on Forests (IPF),
  1995-1997
• Intergovernmental Forum on Forests (IFF),
  1997-2000
• United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF), 2000-2006
• International Tropical Timber Organization,
  1987-present
• CI for Sustainable Management of Natural
  Tropical Forests
• Forest Stewardship Council (First Certification),
  1993

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Elements of Forest Certification Scheme
Forest Certification Scheme
Accreditation
Product Claims
Certification
Tracing Labeling
Standard
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3 Elements of Certification Schemes

• Standard
• Certification
• Accreditation

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Standard

• Sets out the requirements that must be met and
  against which certification assessments are made.
  Standards are developed by standard-setting
  bodies.

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Certification

• Establishing whether or not the standard has been
  met. Usually carried out by a certifier or
  certification body

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Accreditation

• Mechanism for ensuring the organizations that
  undertake certification are competent and provide
  credible and consistent results certifying
  the certifier.

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RESULT
BODY
ACTION
Forest management standard
Standard-setting body
Standard-setting
Chain of custody standard
Auditing of forest management
Forest management certificate
Certification body
Auditing of chain of custody
Chain of custody certificate
Accreditation evaluation
Registration of certification bodies
Accreditation body
Licensing use of logo or label
Standard-setting body
Environmental label
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Forest Standards

• International Organization for Standardization
  (ISO)
• Process standards
• Performance standards
• ISO 14001 applies to forestry

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Typical Forestry Standards

• Legal
• Resource rights, i.e. land tenure
• Operate legally
• Technical
• Management plan
• Forest inventory
• Sustained yield
• Forest health/status monitoring
• Forest protection
• Design of plantations

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Typical Forestry Standards (cont.)

• Environmental
• Conservation and environmental protection
• Environmental resource assessment
• Waste management
• Social
• Health and safety of employees
• Workers rights
• Social impact on local communities
• Protect rights of traditional users
• Employment for local community

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Certification Components

• Objective collection of evidence
• People and organizations involved
• Data collection methods
• Basis/criteria for compliance
• Ensuring that certification decision is credible
• Making accreditation decisions
• Procedure for complaints/appeal
• Transparency
• Outcome ? credible, verifiable certification

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Accreditation

• Certify the certifiers
• Conform to international accreditation
  organizations
• Rules that govern internal organizations
• Non-discrimination and accessibility
• Impartiality
• Conflict-of-interest
• Program for the Endorsement of Forest
  Certification (PEFC)

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Chain-of-Custody and Claims

• COC verifiable system to trace material through
  all stages in the production process
• Segregation
• Identification
• Documentation
• Claims verifiable basis for quality or lower
  environmental impact of selected products to
  increase marketability

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Why Should I Certify?

• Customer demand
• Condition of grant support, loan, insurance
• Market premium?

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Sample Certification Schemes

• Cert for Chile
• Canadian Standards Association (CSA)
• Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)
• Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI)
• Lembaga Ecolable Indonesia (LEI)
• Malaysian Timber Certification Council (MTCC)

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Remaining Certification Issues

• Building capacity to certify
• Small forest enterprises
• Plantations
• Genetically modified organisms
• Blanket certification
• Paying the cost
• Certification of environmental services, i.e.
  carbon sequestration
• Certification in other sectors, i.e. fair trade
  coffee

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Discussion Topics

• State of certification in your region/country
• Is certification worth while in your country?
• What limits your ability to certify?
• What is your view of the future of certification?