Forest Certification and Biodiversity

Col_04_0122.jpgVoluntary forest certification is widely seen as an important component of strategies for achieving sustainable management of the world’s forests.

Key concerns that led to the emergence of forest certification include:

  • the situation of workers, indigenous people and forest-dependent communities;
  • the environmental functions of forests; and
  • biodiversity.

Since the introduction of forest certification, more than 300 million hectares of forests have been certified under a variety of schemes. Less than 30 million hectares, representing less than 2% of the forest area, are in the tropics, mostly certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).

TBI’s interests

But how successful is forest certification? More than 15 years have passed since the first certificate was issued, and it is a relevant question to ask whether certified forests perform better than similar, non-certified forests and forest operations, and whether certification is an effective strategy in reducing deforestation and promoting sustainable forest management.
This requires analysis of the local effects of certification, at the level of individual forests and forest management units, and of its effects at the landscape and national level in tropical countries. The experiences with forest certification are relevant for the design of other emerging certification schemes, including those for carbon and for biofuels.

Biodiversity benefits of certification

Concern about the loss of biodiversity in logged forests has been a key factor behind the emergence of forest certification. It was thought that production forests could play a bigger part in conserving nature by adhering to a strict and widely agreed forest management standard that considers the effects of logging and other forest management activities on biodiversity.

Since 2009, most of the work of TBI and its partners focused on certification effects on biodiversity, resulting in a literature study, an on-line survey and the compilation of an ETFRN News on practical experiences with the conservation of forest biodiversity in certified forests.

In general, the literature review suggests that forest certification has positive biodiversity benefits. This is in agreement with experiences from the field gathered from discussions with certifiers and forest managers with. Despite the apparent differences in the rigour with which biodiversity concerns are addressed in different certification systems, improvements in planning, supervision and basic good management practices required by all of them serve to mitigate many of the harmful environmental impacts of logging and other forest management activities. Similarly, these studies confirm that despite their better performance, certified forests are not fully equivalent to undisturbed or primary forests in terms of biodiversity.

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