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BackgroundTemuco and Padre Las Casas, Chile, have severe problems of air pollution due to the extensive use of firewood for heating. The local authorities have made various efforts to improve fuel quality and introduce greater regulation into the market. Certified firewood guarantees low levels of humidity (MethodsThis study was conducted with a cross-sectional non-experimental design. Following a non-probability sampling by convenience, we applied 355 surveys to participants who use a firewood system. Nonparametric comparisons analyses were made to identify differences in the use of certified wood by socio demographic variables. In addition, an Ordinal Logistic Regression was used to analyze the relation between the use of certified firewood and various psycho-social variables.ResultsHalf of the users of wood-burning stoves participating in the study declared that they “never” (38%) or “almost never” (12%) used certified firewood to heat their home. Situational and product-related variables, such as price, availability, convenience and time are fundamental to people’s purchase behavior, partially explaining the low public interest shown in this product. On the other hand, the results indicate the influence of socio-demographic variables such as income level and the presence of older adults at home, as well as psycho-social variables which include how much participants pay attention to air quality, the information level they have about it, the feelings of discomfort due to air pollution and concern for its effects on health.ConclusionsFirst, increasing information levels and awareness among the population through communication campaigns is necessary to promote the sustainable urban energy transition in southern Chile. Second, information strategies may be complemented by boosting employment, driving investment, improving income, and strengthening the mechanisms of social protection, especially for the most vulnerable groups, to be effective. Finally, protecting and stimulating the formal trade in firewood could increase the points of sale of certified firewood, which would facilitate user access to cleaner fuels.

Forest certification has become an important element in the trade of forest and wood products in many countries worldwide. We reviewed the Controlled Wood audit process under the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), which is one of the world’s largest forest certification schemes. We analysed an FSC Controlled Wood audit of logging operations conducted by VicForests (a government owned logging business operating in the Australian state of Victoria) within the Upper Goulburn Water Supply Protection Area. Areas >30° in slope within the catchment are deemed to be High Conservation Value Forests and they are not allowed to be logged. We: (1) analysed the level of performance required to demonstrate compliance with the FSC Controlled Wood Standard; (2) identified conflicts in the interpretation of standard; and (3) assessed the effectiveness of stakeholder engagement. Using a Digital Terrain Model, we found that 160 cutblocks or 75 % of the 214 areas logged between 2004 and 2019 in the Upper Goulburn Water Supply Protection Area were characterized by slopes >30°. Hence, they were steeper than the limits specified under state-based regulation. However, the FSC accredited certification body auditing VicForests claimed that logging was allowed on these slopes. This contradicted the regulatory authority’s interpretation of compliance. It is therefore critical that accredited FSC certification bodies verify evidence submitted in audits, particularly where that evidence is contested by the applicant forest management enterprise. Where state-based regulation is used, consistency in the interpretation of compliance is needed between accredited certification bodies and regulatory authorities. This case study highlights the important role that stakeholders, including those in civil society and academia, can play in certification schemes such as FSC.

HIGHLIGHTSThe gap in achieving forest certification between developed and developing countries remains wide.Hinderances to certification in developing countries were examined from six dimensions.The success or failure of wood producers to adopt certification is a joint result of their interactions with the political, social, economic, cultural, and psychological contexts.Conventional institutions and governance have profound implications for the promotion of forest certification on a global scale.Efficient solutions to these hindrances are often multi-dimensional and require coordination among certification bodies, government agencies, NGOs, producers, and consumers to create a favorable context for certification uptake.SUMMARYForest certification has been widely hailed for its positive impacts on implementing sustainable forest management. Despite various adjustments to promote its adoption, most of the world's certified forests are in developed countries, with about 87% in Europe and North America. To analyse the reasons for the slow certification uptake in the developing world, two rounds of literature searches were conducted, and the hindrances identified were then discussed under six themes: forest quality, socioeconomic interactions, governance capacity, certification investment, firm expectations and market responses, and risk aversion and the attitude-behaviour gap. Among them, conventional institutions and governance are the most restrictive constraints. Certification, while a non-state form of governance, may not exercise its regulatory power freely through the market without being impeded by the unfavourable contexts in which it takes hold. Finally, recommendations were proposed from the perspectives of politics, legislation, market, and certification schemes to resolve the hindrances in achieving certification.

The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) forest certification was introduced in Nepal with an assumption that it improves forests and ecosystem services while addressing the drivers of forest degradation. As of today, 89 community forests (CF) have been FSC certified, however empirical evidence on the contribution of forest certification on carbon stock and species richness is lacking. This research, thus tries to answer the question “do certified community forests (CCF) maintain higher carbon stock and species richness compared to non-certified community forests (NCF)?” The study collected field level data during February–May 2013 from 88 experimental plots. The study found higher carbon stock (p

PurposeThe Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) intends to promote responsible forestry through its certification scheme. The primary engine that drives this promotion is auditing. Audits serve a dual purpose: they make forest managers accountable for their claim of meeting the FSC standard, and they make the actions of auditors and auditee account-able, or able to be put into an account. The latter of these is rarely investigated, despite it being crucial to understanding how FSC audits are done.Design/methodology/approachThis article examines FSC forest certification audits as practices where the FSC standards gain meaning. In-depth analysis of these practices enables insight into how different values related to forest certification and auditing are articulated and negotiated in practice, characterizing particular modes of auditing. In this paper, the authors examine the practices of FSC forest management auditors in multi-day audits in Africa and in Spain. Their materials were analyzed and coded using Goffman’s elements of dramaturgy.FindingsThe authors’ findings show that auditing practices entail a series of nested performances in which the auditors and auditees interact together and in which front stage and back stage performances constantly alternate as auditors and auditees perform for each other and simultaneously for an absent audience.Originality/valueThe authors’ analysis demonstrates how in these performances, professional values related to following auditing rules and ensuring that audits are rendered account-able in a particular way take a prominent position. This risks overshadowing the accountability of the FSC system which is ultimately grounded in its ambition to improve forest conservation and management.

This article aims to understand why extractive firms in the industrial logging industry in central Africa are reluctant to certify or label their activities. The methodology is based on three empirical case studies of logging companies in Cameroon: one opposed to certification and labeling (the model), the other is in the process of being certified (intermediate case) and the last is certified (negative case). The preferred option followed by this study was to avoid the copying of the first case by prospecting an intermediate case. The "negative" case permitted the model to be saturated. The comparative analysis of data collected highlighted some key obstacles to the commitment to environmental labeling: corruption, low turnover, high certification cost and the source of capital.

HIGHLIGHTSThe paper quantifies the value that FSC certification brings to a company.Fuzzy logic has been introduced into the discounting cash flow method to obtain the value of FSC certification.Fuzzy mathematics have been used in order to integrate both information about companies' size and information about the sector.The companies analyzed with a valid certificate experienced an increase in their value because of FSC certification.The implementation of the ANOVA fuzzy method shows that neither the business size nor the sector influence the relationship between FSC certification and a company's value.SUMMARYForest certification appeared in the 1990's as a way to deal with forest deterioration. Currently, however, public opposition can limit its effectiveness. Business policy makers should analyze how Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification can affect the value of companies. Yet, the relation between financial performance and forest certification systems is a subject which has not been explored to a great extent, and the measures used for evaluating financial performance in published studies are not based on business valuation. In this study, Spanish companies with FSC certification are valuated under the premises of implementation and non-implementation of FSC certification. Given the uncertainty inherent in the second option, the use of fuzzy mathematics has been considered a suitable tool. According to the results obtained, it can be concluded that regardless of size or business sector, FSC certification is effective in increasing the value of companies. The paper offers economic arguments for managers to become more environmentally responsible.

Despite several efforts to quantify the effectiveness of forest certification in developing sustainable use of forest resources, there is little evidence that certified forests are more effective in conserving fauna than non‐certified managed forest. To evaluate the impact of forest certification on the fauna, we compared the biodiversity in reference sites (n = 23), Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified management sites (n = 24) and non‐FSC management sites (n = 20) in the Tahuamanu region of Peru, during the dry season of 2017. Specifically, we determined if the acoustic space used (ASU), soundscapes composition, and the bird richness and composition significantly varied among the three management types. Variation in ASU was best explained by management type and mean ASU in the FSC sites was significantly greater than the reference and non‐FSC sites, possibly suggesting greater richness of acoustically active species. An ordination analysis of the soundscapes showed that there was a significant difference among the three management types. There was greater dissimilarity in soundscape composition between the FSC and non‐FSC sites, and greater overlap between FSC and reference sites. Bird identifications resulted in 11,300 detections of 226 bird species. Bird species richness and composition were not significantly different among the management types, indicating, in this context, that birds may not be the best indicators of different management strategies. The weak discrimination by the bird community is likely due to their dispersal ability, undisturbed primary forest matrix, and the occurrence of bamboo patches. The differences in ASU among the management types were most likely due to differences in acoustically active insects, which may be more sensitive to changes in microhabitat differences. Our findings correspond with the conclusions of other studies that certified forests can maintain levels of fauna biodiversity similar to those of undisturbed primary forest in the Amazon region.

'Forest management' aims to maintain forests as producers of goods and services, while ensuring their conservation for future generations. Forest certification has become one of the most widely used mechanisms to encourage and recognize this 'forest stewardship', with the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) among the most well-known systems worldwide. FSC is widely used in several Management Units on the American Continent, which is home to large forest areas. Therefore, we evaluated the main difficulties in complying with the principles of the FSC standard in 18 American countries based on verification of non-conformities generated in the process. The data were obtained from information contained in the certification audit reports available on the FSC official website, covering all organizations with valid certificates from 1995 to 2013. We found that the United States presented the lowest mean of non-conformities per audit, which may indicate better capacity of managers to implement practices of its forestry activities. Regarding the deviation type, the United States and Canada presented higher indices in relation to the adequacy of the environmental impacts (P6) of their activities. Meanwhile, the greatest non-conformities in the Central and South America countries occurred in the labor and social area (P4), followed by environmental issues (P6). All organizations presented some type of non-compliance with the criteria set by the FSC and needed to adapt. The major difficulties encountered were related to compliance with environmental requirements. The need to implement corrective actions to maintain the certificate demonstrates a change of management influenced by the forest certification process, thus contributing to minimizing socio-environmental impacts resulting from forest operations.

O objetivo desse estudo foi analisar a capacidade das indústrias moveleiras da região metropolitana do Rio de Janeiro, em atender aos requisitos das certificações de cadeia de custódia do Forest Council Stewardship (FSC). Os dados foram coletados através da aplicação de questionários contendo informações sobre a certificação florestal (administração participativa, capacitação dos funcionários, documentação legal da empresa, fornecedores certificados, rastreabilidade da matéria-prima e relatório de movimentação de certificação). Os questionários foram preenchidos durante visitas às empresas, respondidos pelo responsável do setor de projeto e produção. Os requisitos “disposição de licenças e outros documentos legais”, “disponibilidade de um responsável pelo processo de certificação de cadeia de custódia” e “capacitação de funcionários”, que necessitam de custos e que exigem procedimentos burocráticos para cumprimento, foram os que mais interferiram para que as empresas não obtivessem o certificado de cadeia de custódia. O requisito-chave “rastreabilidade da matéria-prima” não apresentou complexidade de cumprimento, visto que todas as indústrias afirmaram ter capacidade em atendê-lo. Em relação à norma de certificação de cadeia de custódia, a maioria das indústrias moveleiras da região metropolitana do Rio de Janeiro consegue cumprir os requisitos exigidos.

In Sweden, there is a lack of knowledge about nature conservation management (NCM) practices in voluntary set-aside forests. Estimates indicate that, for unknown reasons, only a small proportion of...

Background Over the last 25 years, the prominent forest certification system established by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) has used by many companies worldwide for claiming responsible forest management. The objectives of the Russian National FSC standard to decrease the size of clearcuts and the retention of forest elements such as residual seed trees need on-site validation to proof the effectiveness of FSC. To assess the ecological impacts of harvesting practices and benefits of FSC certification, we geospatially compared logging activities with and without FSC certification. Within a sample area covering approximately 3,000 km2 in the east of the Russian Arkhangelsk Region, we used available data on tree cover loss and satellite images to assess secondary impacts of clearcuttings on adjacent remnant forests and to quantify the logging intensity. Additionally, the size and structure as well as the density of skidding trails of ten specific clearcuttings located within the sample area were surveyed using satellite images and in the field observation to delineate the boundaries of clearcuts and forested remnants within the clearcuts. Results We found a significant increase of small-scale tree cover loss in the proximity of the clearcuts. Patchy dieback is possibly linked to the scale and intensity of logging in the surroundings. On the investigated clearcuts, FSC failed to reduce the size, to increase the retention of forest remnants including seed trees on logged areas, and to maintain larger tracts of undisturbed ground and soil compared to clearcuts that were logged before they received FSC-certification. Conclusions Trees and forest remnants remaining inside an increasingly stressed forest ecosystem matrix may not resist further harvesting-related and climate change-induced stresses and disturbances. Large-scale clearcuttings seem to have negative impacts even in adjacent forests and undermine the ecological effectiveness of FSC certification in the study area. The Russian FSC standard is not clearly setting effective guidelines that induce a change in clearcutting practices in order to reduce ecological risks.

Purpose of Review Non-native tree species (NNT) raise a range of different associations and emotions—to many citizens they are just an exotic curiosity in parks, to many conservationists they are an evil to native ecosystems that should be eradicated, to a rising group of foresters they are part of the solution to climate change and an increasing timber demand, and to others they are already daily forestry business. In this review, where we also summarise the findings of the recent COST Action FP1403 (NNEXT) ‘Non-native tree species for European forests: experiences, risks and opportunities’, we highlight opportunities and challenges in the light of climate change, ecological risks and legislative limits of growing non-native tree species in Europe. Recent Findings Few NNT in Europe show invasive behaviour and are listed as prohibited species or as species to be monitored. A larger number of NNT is utilised in productive forestry and forest restoration due to their superior growth, valuable timber properties and good performance under harsh growing conditions. Current species distribution, experiences with success and failures and environmental concerns differ profoundly across Europe, with Western Europe overall revealing higher shares in NNT and showing a stronger interest of forestry related stakeholder groups to continue planting NNT. Summary Many more NNT are already used in forestry than previously thought, but relatively few species have major importance in terms of area, mainly in western European countries. Diversification, mixing and avoidance of invasion in relation to NNT are necessities that are relatively new on the agenda. In contrast, provenance research of major NNT has been going on for many decades and now provides important information for climate change adaptation. Despite the limitations to the use of NNT either through legal restrictions or forest certification that differ considerably across Europe, the careful integration of a range of tested NNT also into future forest management planning shows a high potential for climate change adaptation and mitigation.

Forests of Russia have global ecological significance. They include huge massive of boreal forests, almost a quarter of global area of intact forest landscapes. The global role of Russian forests in inhibition of aridization and land degradation is well known. Development of representative system of forest protection is one of the main tasks of Russian Federation in implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity obligations. The Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 20112020 and the Aichi Strategic Goals plan protection of no less than 17% of terrestrial ecosystems area to the 2020, especially the sites of high significance for biodiversity and ecosystem services. The main forest protection mechanisms are protected natural areas (PNA), forests with protective functions, and protective sites (PS). PNA contains around 7% of forest covered area. Forests with protective functions make up around 16% of forest covered areas, but the management regimes of many types of such forests are not conforming to the Aichi Biodiversity Targets. Many of forests with protective functions are under lease for forest management. Since recently the significance of voluntary Forest Stewardship council (FSC) certification for biodiversity conservation is increasing. The standards of FSC certification require from forest companies to implement protection and appropriate use of high conservation value forests (HCVF). Totally there are 46 mln ha of FSC certified forests in Russia, from them around 56 mln ha of HCVF received additional protection from certification. One of the most important categories of HCVF are intact forest landscapes (IFLs). Around 1 mln ha of IFLs are protected as the result of forest certification, providing significant input into Convention on Biological Diversity. For 35 FSC certified companies the share of identified HCVFs with nature conservation regimes in their leased forests is comparable with the average share of PNAs (without certification) on the regional or district level. The main output of the research is that the role of voluntary forest certification for enhancing the system of forest protection in Russia is increasing, which receives worldwide recognition.

The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) principles and criteria have been implemented in over 80 community forests in Nepal over the last decade. However, the total size of community forests certified under the FSC certification is relatively small (0.1% of the total area of the country), which limits the overall benefits they can provide to the surrounding communities. The national government has instituted the Collaborative Forest Management (CFM) initiative to maintain forest connectivity and give local communities jurisdiction over the nearby forests that they and their ancestor have lived with and managed for many generations. The CFM policies strive to ensure the restoration of large and continuous patches of forest, equitable benefit sharing of forest products and good governance, yet these policies do not certify the forests as sustainably managed, and thus cannot provide increased prices on the international market for products from these forests. Two collaborative forests were assessed in the Tarai region of Nepal to understand how well these community managed forests already follow the FSC principles and where changes must be made for these forests to be certified in the future. Field observations were undertaken, focus group discussions held, and semi-structured interviews carried out in order to understand current management practices in these two collaborative managed forests. Findings showed that the CFM helped improve biodiversity and benefit sharing from the forest amongst the wide range of communities. Collaboratively managed forests and FSC principles were shown to have complementary objectives: to sustain forests, strengthen forest governance and conserve indigenous species and knowledge, and it is argued that these plans can be synchronized for the benefit of both forests and people.

In managed forests, leaving retention trees during final harvesting has globally become a common approach to reconciling the often conflicting goals of timber production and safeguarding biodiversity and delivery of several ecosystem services. In Finland, the dominant certification scheme requires leaving low levels of retention that can benefit some specific species. However, species responses are dependent on the level of retention and the current low amounts of retention clearly do not provide the habitat quality and continuity needed for declining and red-listed forest species which are dependent on old living trees and coarse woody debris. Several factors contribute to this situation. First, the ecological benefits of the current low retention levels are further diminished by monotonous standwise use of retention, resulting in low variability of retention habitat at the landscape scale. Second, the prevailing timber-oriented management thinking may regard retention trees as an external cost to be minimized, rather than as part of an integrated approach to managing the ecosystem for specific goals. Third, the main obstacles of development may still be institutional and policy-related. The development of retention practices in Finland indicates that the aim has not been to use ecological understanding to attain specific ecological sustainability goals, but rather to define the lowest level of retention that still allows access to the market. We conclude that prevailing retention practices in Finland currently lack ecological credibility in safeguarding biodiversity and they should urgently be developed based on current scientific knowledge to meet ecological sustainability goals.

Forest certification was introduced to Chile twenty years ago, to promote sustainable forest management, address the degradation of natural forests, and ameliorate social issues associated with an economically-successful industrial plantation forestry industry. Adoption of certification in Chile offers an informative case study of competition between the two international schemes, FSC and the PEFC-endorsed CERTFOR. This qualitative study explores the reasons why forestry businesses in each of the plantation and native forestry sectors sought, promoted and maintained certification under one or both schemes. Results show that their motivations to adopt and maintain a particular certification scheme depend not only on market access or social licence to operate but also on contextual factors, including the structure of the forest industry and historical land tenure disputes. The current situation reflects the history of certification: notwithstanding that the schemes have converged, the FSC still dominates the SFM discourse, but Chile's forestry industry has maintained CERTFOR for political reasons.

Community forests (CFs) aim to improve human wellbeing and conservation effectiveness, though their performance remains contested. A recent innovation in protected area (PA) governance is to combine CFs with forest certification. We assess (1) the impact of certified CFs on wellbeing and conservation effectiveness; (2) gender inequality and elite capture; (3) interaction effects with neighboring national PAs. We used a novel approach that integrates field data consisting of locally identified indicators representative of multidimensional wellbeing, with remotely sensed data on conservation effectiveness and statistical matching to improve causal inference. We found that CFs positively impacted wellbeing, conservation effectiveness, and reduced gender inequality, though they did not reduce elite capture. We also detected positive interaction effects between certified CFs and neighboring national PAs. Our findings suggest that locating contrasting local and national PA governance approaches next to each other may help to maximize wellbeing and conservation benefits within complex multiuse landscapes.

Many forest-related problems are considered relevant today. One might think of deforestation, illegal logging and biodiversity loss. Yet, many governance initiatives have been initiated to work on their solutions. This Element takes stock of these issues and initiatives by analysing different forest governance modes, shifts and norms, and by studying five cases (forest sector governance, forest legality, forest certification, forest conservation, participatory forest management). Special focus is on performance: are the many forest governance initiatives able to change established practices of forest decline (Chloris worldview) or are they doomed to fail (Hydra worldview)? The answer will be both, depending on geographies and local conditions. The analyses are guided by discursive institutionalism and philosophical pragmatism. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

State-approved forestry best management practices (BMPs) are a practice or combination of practices that, when properly implemented, effectively prevent or reduce the amount of nonpoint source (NPS) pollution entering waterbodies, such as sediment. Although BMPs are voluntary in most states in the southeastern United States (U.S.), forest landowners operating under the auspices of a forest certification system are required to use BMPs, and forest-certified wood procurement organizations also require loggers who supply them with fiber to use BMPs. Current implementation rates are, on average, 93.6% throughout the southeastern U.S. We conducted a literature review to better understand potential effectiveness of BMPs to conserve aquatic resources and species in the southeastern U.S. Our review focuses on how BMPs reduce NPS pollutants, particularly sediment, fertilizers, and herbicides; how BMPs are monitored throughout the southeastern U.S.; and current implementation rates. Additionally, we discuss how state BMP monitoring programs, coupled with participation in forest certification programs that require routine third-party audits, provide assurance to federal and state agencies that BMPs protect aquatic resources and species. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has recognized that working forests where management activities implement BMPs represent a clear, actionable, and scientifically sound approach for conserving at-risk aquatic species. However, there is a data gap in directly linking BMPs to the conservation of aquatic resources. Given the high diversity of aquatic species in the southeastern U.S., it is important to better understand this potential linkage.

Clarifying the spatial correlation and driving mechanism of wood-based products trade network is conducive to promoting the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) to a higher level. Firstly, we explored the characteristics of spatial correlation and evolution tendency of raw material-type wood-based products trade network (TN-WFPM) and product-type wood-based products trade network (TN-WFPP) from the overall characteristics, centrality, and node coreness of the networks according to social network analysis method. Then we analyzed the driving mechanism of the spatial correlation according to the quadratic assignment procedure (QAP). The results show that, compared with TN-WFPM, the density, reciprocity, and agglomeration of the TN-WFPP are relatively stronger. The centrality and evolution characteristics of RCEP countries are different in the networks. The coreness of China and Thailand in the TN-WFPP has always been in the top two, while the coreness of China, Japan, and Korea has increased significantly and China has been the top since 2010 in the TN-WFPM. Factors like cultural distance, forest resource endowment, forest certification area, economic scale, economic distance, and free trade agreements (FTA) have significant impacts on the spatial correlation of wood-based products trade among RCEP countries. Furthermore, the impacts of different factors on the two kinds of networks are heterogeneous.

Forests provide ecosystem services, including timber production. In some cases, private forest owners perform management actions in order to enhance the provision of such services, or they may be encouraged by public policies and payments. This paper focuses specifically on the decision to set forest land aside for biodiversity conservation, as part of the more general question of the efficiency of multiple-use vs. specialised management of forest lands. We propose an econometric analysis to identify factors in the set-aside choice and measure the impact of this decision on forest management costs. The results show that the set-aside choice depends on the landowners’ income and motivations related to forest amenities. The choice of specialised management, as reflected in the set-aside decision, has a significant and positive impact on the intensity of management in the remainder of the forest and on management costs. From a policy implications point of view, these results suggest that instruments such as forest certification, subsidies and reverse auctions for conservation will be most likely to attract the interest of those forest owners with personal motivations and forest properties that offer both benefit and cost advantages in opting for such specialised management strategies.

Vietnam’s forestry policies have expanded the area of planted forests in order to meet the supply of raw materials for the timber processing industry. However, the diversity and volume of demand in the industry have also increased, and a shortage of raw materials can be assumed. For clarifying the correspondence of stakeholders, we explore changes in the resource supply behavior of forestry companies and procurement strategies of companies that manufacture lumber for glued laminated timber, medium density fiberboard (MDF) and wood pellets. Next, we discuss issues and future developments surrounding the supply and demand for timber from planted forests. According to a survey of Quang Tri Province, both industrial and on-farm tree planting play an important role in Vietnam’s wood industry. The origin of the supply has been categorized according to its purpose (products). On the other hand, with the declining supply of imported timber and natural forest timber, inquiries from sawmills and glued laminated timber factories for timber from planted forests have increased, and wood pellet manufacturers are facing competition for raw material procurement with MDF manufacturers, and the supply of timber from planted forests is becoming scarce. The key to the solution lies in improving the low productivity of current on-farm tree planting. To this end, forming farmer groups upon the acquisition of forest certification will help achieve economies of scale and bargaining power.

In the fall of 2018, the “Vaia” windstorm grounded around 8.5 million m3 of timber in northeastern Italy. Soon after, the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) Italy activated a project called “fair supply chain” to promote the purchase of timber from the damaged areas at a reasonable price. The initiative was addressed at forest owners, forest and processing enterprises, retailers, and supporting organizations. This study reports the results of a survey performed to assess the effectiveness of the project two years after its launch. The survey, in the form of a questionnaire submitted to all adhering organizations, investigated different aspects such as motivations for adherence to the project, satisfaction with the project, sale of the labeled material, and promotion of the specific label. The results provide a detailed outline of the above aspects. Through the various findings, the project is perceived as effective in supporting the region, enhancing an organizations’ image, and limiting price fall. Yet, further efforts should be aimed at increasing networking and business opportunities. Some recommendations are also offered for similar projects in the future, as forest disturbances are increasing worldwide in frequency and intensity due to climate change.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused economic difficulties for companies in forestry as well as significant issues for entities dealing with Chain of Custody (CoC) certification. Global certification schemes, like FSC and PEFC, based on some preventive provisions in their procedural frame, developed new approaches and derogations to maintain quality evaluation and the power of standards. Arising from COVID-19 restrictions, postponed audits (and the extension of the validity of existing certifications) or remote auditing became increasingly common. Based on a survey applied to companies that had CoC FSC audits in 2020, this study aimed at evaluating the perceptions of companies regarding the audits performed under COVID pandemic procedural derogations, along with other research objectives like the continuous investigation of certification drivers or advantages. Companies indicated that the certification bodies explained the characteristics of pandemic-adapted audits and conducted risk assessments before choosing the adapted approach. Almost half of the companies perceived significant differences between the on-site previous audits and the audits performed during the pandemic due to the imposed restrictions and adapted approaches. Additionally, companies found that hybrid or remote audits are not so efficient, and for the future on-site audits are preferred. The study concluded that making the auditing procedures less interactional is not yet a sufficiently mature approach, there is a clear need for better procedures, building online tools usage capacity, to better communicate the specificity of such procedures better, and to better balance the online evaluations with on-site assessments.

The article examines the importance of the forestry complex for maintaining the natural balance and conservation of biodiversity from an ecological point of view, and compliance with international standards and access to international markets from an economic point of view. The areas covered with forest vegetation, as well as the forest cover of the territories of European countries and Ukraine were analyzed. The deviation of the actual average forest cover of the territory from the optimal one in Ukraine (by 4.1%) was revealed. Zonal indicators of Ukraine’s forest cover were considered, and the territories of the country with insufficient afforestation were identified. The importance of forest certification for ensuring economically and ecologically balanced forest management was considered. The positive dynamics according to the area of the certified forests, growth rates of the area, growth rates of the number of forestry certificates, and supply chain certificates among Ukrainian producers was analytically confirmed. Forestry activity in Chernihiv region in 2015–2020 was analyzed according to the area of certified forests, types of forest vegetation, and afforestation areas. The current FSC certified state-owned enterprises of Chernihiv region are also identified: Novhorod-Siversky Forestry, Nizhyn Forestry, Kholmy Forestry and certified products (roundwood logs), wood chips, sawdust, fuel wood, beams, planks, and finished dimensional lumber) and promising areas of certification (twigs, plank flooring, wood wool, pallets, etc.) were identified. The long-term benefit of FSC certification for domestic forests has been proved. It was determined and reasoned that forest certification is a tool to increase the competitiveness of domestic forests and integration into foreign markets.

Articolul prezintă o analiză a importanței procesului de certificare forestieră în identificarea și gestionarea serviciilor ecosistemice furnizate de Pădurile cu Valoare Ridicată de Conservare (PVRC). Datele au fost colectate din 13 rapoarte PVRC disponibile publicului larg care acoperă o suprafață totală de pădure de 117.507 ha. Procesul de identificare a PVRC a presupus cartarea a 28.882 ha de pădure care furnizează valori de conservare. Analiza datelor calitative ale rapoartelor s-a axat pe sursele de date folosite în procesul de identificare a PVRC, grupate în cinci categorii: (i) amenajamente silvice; (ii) planuri de management ale ariilor naturale protejate; (iii) alte surse de date disponibile; (iv) consultări publice cu factorii interesați și (v) implicarea personalului silvic. Rezultate au arătat că 80% din zonele identificate ca PVRC provin din informațiile obținute din amenajamentele silvice. Acestea fac referire la serviciile ecosistemice de reglare (protecția apelor, eroziunea solului și calitatea aerului) și la pădurile încadrate în zona de protecție strictă a ariilor naturale protejate. Procesul de identificare PVRC ajută la armonizarea între planurile de management Natura 2000 și amenajamentele silvice, în special, prin cartarea prezenței speciilor rare și amenințate și a habitatelor. O valoare adăugată de procesul PVRC este identificarea serviciilor culturale prin consultări publice cu factorii interesați și implicarea personalului de teren. Serviciile adiționale identificate în procesul de certificare oferă exemple pentru măsuri financiare prin care statul ar putea să recompenseze proprietarii de păduri pentru furnizarea de servicii ecosistemice peste limita cerută legal de amenajamente. În concluzie, analiza subliniază faptul ca amenajarea pădurilor oferă un cadru riguros de identificare a serviciilor ecosistemice forestiere, certificarea forestieră adăugând însă cerințe suplimentare de gestionare și de monitorizare a gradului de furnizarea a serviciilor ecosistemice.

This study highlights the importance of incorporating objectively quantified, non-market environmental values (such as avoided erosion and carbon sequestration) into land use decision making for sustainable forest management. A continuously developing approach that has facilitated discussions between researchers, industries, and governments on the quantification of non-market values is the ecosystem services (ES) framework. Using a spatial economic tool, called Forest Investment Framework, this study is, to the best of our knowledge, the first assessment of the market (timber) and non-market (carbon sequestration, avoided nitrogen leaching and avoided erosion) ES values of the 1.75 million-hectare New Zealand planted forest estate. To collect the views of key planted forest industry representatives on ES assessment/quantification, we interviewed 14 forest managers representing 60% of the planted forest area. Results from the spatial economic analysis indicated that the non-market ES values can be more than four times the timber profit nationally, and up to 12 times higher in New Zealand’s most erosion-prone region. These estimated values are indicative and should be treated with caution. From a sensitivity analysis, we found that different discount rates significantly impact ES values, ratios, and distributions. Results from the interviews indicated that ES quantification helped inform decision making by supporting license to operate, while also signaling the development of a reward system for sustaining ES. Sixty-four percent of survey respondents identified the importance of quantifying ES in ecological terms and describing other non-market ES in spatial, qualitative, or binary forms. Overall, this study provided evidence of how estimated non-market ES values compare with market values and highlighted the importance of including them in decision making processes. Future cost benefit analyses that incorporate these non-market monetary ES values would complement multi-criteria analysis that integrate additional dimensions and allow decision makers to rank options based on their particular criteria.

The present business environment offers a wide scale of production and it is increasingly difficult to find a product standard which can distinguish the producer from competitors. The pressure of lobby groups and legislation arrangements force the society to reflect a need for ecologic and sustainable thinking. The current trend and requirements of EU are the implementation of certified systems and production of wooden products from certified wood. This paper focused on the present situation in the supply of products from certified wood and analyses an exercitation of eco-philosophy in the business of wood processors, the rate of manufacturing of certified wooden products, as well as reasons and benefits of certified production. This paper presents selected results of primary research carried out in Czechia which was focused on the investigation of economic impacts of wood products manufacturing from certified raw wood. All presented results emphasise the need for voluntary market tools with ecologic character. Keywords: Certification system, certified wood, wood processing, eco philosophy.

This study aims to understand, through the example of Cameroon, why industrial logging companies adopt or avoid sustainable certification or labelling systems of their forest operations in the Congo Basin region. From a methodological standpoint, the research is based on a sample of three empirical case studies of logging companies operating in Cameroon: an 'anti-certification' company (the model, due to the majority trend of non-certified logging companies in this region), a company in the process of certification (the intermediate case), and a certified company (the marginal case, due to the scarcity of certified companies in the study area). While focusing on these three cases, we chose to avoid reifying the dominant case of anti-certification companies. Hence the choice of highlighting this majority trend by carrying out a comparative study with an intermediate and a marginal case. The analysis of these three case studies reveals that the high cost of long term certification, the risks of patronage and cronyism in Patron-Client (customer-provider/boss) relationships that feature sustainable labelling processes are the main reasons for the low level of commitment of logging companies to forest certification in Cameroon. At the end of the research, we recommend that other complementary and more specific research should focus on the flaws in patron-client relationships that characterize forest certification processes on the one hand, and on the necessary conditions to avoid patronage and cronyisms risks or excesses in these relations on the other hand, especially in a poor governance context like Cameroon. Similarly, we encourage that new research be carried out to better understand whether and how transaction and opportunity costs influence the decisions of industrial logging companies in favour of or against forest certification.

Millions of people are dependent on tropical forests for livelihood. However, their dependence on meagre incomes from nontimber forest products (NTFPs) and payment for ecosystem services (PES) are leading to continuing poverty. It is doubtful if the program, Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) has yet achieved much in its primary goal of forest conservation, and the chance of it helping to alleviate rural poverty is slim. Forest conservation per se hardly creates economic opportunities, beyond survival, for rural people. Our efforts for conserving forests and their biodiversity will remain less effective as long as there are so many enclaves of trenchant poverty within and around them in the landscapes and we continue to by-pass practical routes to poverty alleviation. Poverty can be alleviated only if local actions spur economic development in which local communities have a rightful and fair share and can earn rewards for their entrepreneurships. Wood is a renewable, recyclable, versatile and sustainable natural resource. The demands for wood products are rising in developing countries, as their economies grow. They also face endemic wood deficits. This provides opportunities to pro-actively develop commercial forestry as a path to rural development and poverty alleviation. That would also assist national climate change mitigation measures, because forests sequester carbon, wood products are largely carbon positive and timber- based options are on hand to substitute for high emission materials such as concrete, steel and aluminium used to build our living environments. To move along this path, the businesses of tree growing by small-growers and local value adding should be strengthened, catalysing the entrepreneurial spirits of local people. Central to this is the need to put in place strategies to improve the productivity of and value from small scale enterprises; yet there is a serious lack of research and application to serve this key need. Among other constraints faced by small-growers include, lack of transparent and legal rights to land ownership in several countries, layers of bureaucratic regulations and the current international forest certification systems which are cumbersome and unaffordable for small-growers. Actions are possible and needed for simplifying or removing road blocks on all these fronts, along with, importantly, the development of markets for diverse products. Growth of the forestry sector as an engine for rural development warrants far greater recognition and investment than has been the case so far. We need to re-imagine and strengthen the role of forestry including commercial wood business - green growth - as an effective path to rural development and poverty alleviation.

The conservation and utilization of wild animals in China often raises public concerns. Thus, the Chinese government is increasingly exploring sustainable development of wildlife resources, and has implemented a series of measures, such as the modification of the Wildlife Protection Law (WPL), implementation of captive breeding licenses, an animal marking system, forest certification, and other actions to regulate captive breeding and utilization of wildlife. At the same time, the government tries to meet the Chinese traditional demand for wildlife products. We first introduce wildlife utilization as an internationally accepted conservation tool, and describe market‐based wildlife farming as a legal substitute for wild‐hunted animals. Second, we highlight the importance of wildlife products in Chinese culture and economy and review some successful examples of wildlife utilization in China, showing that the supply‐side approach is a viable alternative to classical conservation. Subsequently, we outline benefits of, and drawbacks to, China's ‘conservation through utilization’ approach, resulting in the implementation of China's new, revised WPL. We discuss merits and shortcomings of China's revised WPL and respond to recent national and international criticism on China's supply‐side approach to conservation. We strongly propose that captive breeding is a feasible approach to China's wildlife conservation–utilization dilemma, and much work is needed to promote the progress, such as legislation restructure, government attention, duties clarification, and so on. © 2019 The Wildlife Society., The conservation and utilization of wild animals in China often raises public concerns, and we reviewed the sustainable development of wildlife resources of China in recent years. We propose that captive breeding is a feasible approach to China's wildlife conservation–utilization dilemma. The Chinese government has thus implemented a series of measures to regulate captive breeding and utilization of wildlife (e.g., China's new Wildlife Protection Law).

We explored whether, and to what extent, variable retention (VR) forestry has been applied in European boreal forests in northwestern Russia. Our survey revealed VR since 1910. Between 1910 and the 1960s, the statistics showing how much was retained are largely missing. However, for example, in the 1950s, on a large scale in the Republic of Karelia, up to 200-ha-sized harvesting areas, 18–33%, were retention patches with a mean growing stock of 30–40 m3 ha−1. In the fellings defined as “incomplete clear fellings,” which were the most common final felling type at that time, 11–40% of the growing stock was left. Between the 1960s and the early 1990s, with more efficient harvesting and skidding techniques, conventional clear fellings with a much lower amount of retention were practiced. Concern about the regeneration of harvested areas gradually led to smaller (maximum 50 ha) harvesting areas and the increase of silvicultural activities. Until now, to ensure natural regeneration, patches of understory and 20–25 seed trees (i.e., ca. 15–25 m3) per ha have been left permanently in harvesting areas. Landscape-scale retention for protecting ecosystem functions and biodiversity was legislated in 1978 by preserving key biotopes up to 1000 ha in size. Since 2001, promoted by forest certification, the key biotopes, such as paludified forest patches, buffers around water bodies, and habitats of red-listed species, have also been retained in harvesting areas, together with a dispersed retention of different elements. Quantitative estimates of the amount of key biotopes are largely missing. However, estimates of 1–13% in harvesting areas and 23% in whole managed landscapes have been given. VR applied during the last century has emulated natural disturbances and created diverse uneven-aged forest structures with high amounts of diverse coarse woody debris. We conclude that an analysis of past and current retention practices is essential for estimating the global role of Russian forestry. Further decisions on the general direction of Russian forestry and, specifically, retention practices are important to address the global challenges of biodiversity loss and climate change.

Development and implementation of forestry best management practices (BMPs) to minimize effects on wetland soils and hydrology represents a great success of the Clean Water Act (CWA). The “silvicultural exemption” as specified in Section 404(f) of the CWA allows management activities within jurisdictional forested wetlands so long as practices meet specified criteria and wetlands are not converted to uplands. This is particularly important for establishing and maintaining forest roads and site preparation of harvested stands in jurisdictional wetlands. The presence of poorly drained soils and seasonally high-water tables in the Coastal Plain led to the development of site preparation practices that enhance seedling survival, vigor, and growth. Collaboration among universities, governmental agencies, and the forest products industry has resulted in numerous applied research projects assessing environmental responses to management in forested wetlands. Today, all southeastern Coastal Plain states recommend the use of site preparation BMPs that reduce soil and hydrology disturbances, while facilitating stand regeneration. State forestry agencies routinely monitor BMP implementation to assess application and functionality of BMPs. Additionally, forest landowners and wood procurement entities who participate in voluntary third-party forest certification programs have increased BMP implementation on a scale that contributes to watershed-level benefits.

In the last decade, the forest certification has expanded in Vietnam as an effort of the Government to boost the supply of certified wood for furniture production. However, the certification creates many challenges to the many small woodlot owners. Some of the challenges consist of a lack of technical knowledge and skills, as well as the high cost of the certification process. In this study, we identify the actual economic costs of obtaining and maintaining FSC certification and discuss some mechanism which can support small-scale forest owners paying for these costs. The results reveal that the audit fee paying to the certification agency accounts for a big proportion of total costs. On one hand, the result of our Benefit Cost analysis confirms that the revenue of selling FSC certified timber is much higher than non-certified, implying that the forest owners earn from certification and therefore, are capable of paying for costs associated with forest certification by themselves. In order to obtain higher revenue, a longer forest rotation is suggested. However, the lengthened years also cause difficulties and risks to the local people’s livelihood, which therefore, requires decreasing the certification cost per ha by larger scale of certified forest area or number of members. As the first group of smallholders in Vietnam obtaining the FSC certificate, the findings from this study are important towards the management and development of forest certification in Vietnam.

For developing countries like Indonesia, the advantages enjoyed by developed countries – of political stability and highly regulated systems of land tenure and ownership – are elusive, leading to a situation in which state intervention in forest governance is met with resistance and faces significant hurdles. Recognizing the challenges facing implementation of Indonesia's current systems of certification, and the failure thus far of government efforts to stem illegal forestry activity, this article examines the influence of certification on sustainable forest management (SFM) in Indonesia. In particular, the question of how certification requirements interact with both the domestic regulatory framework and expectations for community participation and engagement is considered. The article begins by reviewing Indonesian efforts to implement SFM, as well as the basis of certification systems; before examining Indonesian experience with forest certification, drawing both upon previously published studies and field research by the authors. Finally, the article considers complementarity in government, private and community initiatives in SFM and how regulatory reform in support of a more participatory approach could contribute to achieving these goals. The development of the Indonesian voluntary forestry certification process shows that both certification schemes and government regulation provide advantages and disadvantages in improving the sustainability of forest management and in controlling illegal activities. An increased role for communities, small-scale producers and traditional forest users appears important in the Indonesian context, providing additional options and capacity for sustainable forest management.

Forest certification has increased the cost of companies which has affected the international trade of wood products. This paper examines forest certification costs of companies, and based on this,...

Group forest certification programs are a relatively new policy tool designed to enhance the inclusion of small-holder foresters in forest certification systems. However, our understanding of the institutional arrangements that facilitate the participation of small-holder foresters in certification programs is limited. We assessed the role and effectiveness of intermediary organisations in promoting the participation of Non-Industrial Private Forest Owners (NIPFOs) in a forest management certification program. We focused on the Eastern Ontario Model Forest (EOMF) – an intermediary organization in Canada – which facilitates the certification of NIPFOs in a group certification program. We employed a mixed method approach involving questionnaires, document review, semi-structured interviews, and direct observations. Our findings show that the EOMF's role in the certification of NIPFOs falls under three broad categories and program implementation phases. These are program design and implementation (early-phase), routine administrative and organisational work (take-off phase), and organisational and financial sustainability (long-term phase). Across the different phases of the program, attributes of the EOMF that enhanced its effectiveness were its capacity to (a) build social capital and run the certification at relatively low cost, (b) optimize the program to provide services required by landowners, and (c) innovate to respond to stakeholder demands. However, poor market benefits, instability in donor funding and perceived inequity in group dynamics limit the EOMF's effectiveness. Intermediaries are important not only to reduce the challenges that limit the participation of small-holders in certification but also in optimizing certification to better respond to the needs and interests of small-holder operators.

Forest certification is an important mechanism for the legitimation of environmental practices in the sustainable forest management. Its basis are the forest management standards, which represent the guidelines for defining sustainable forest management through a hierarchical structure (principles, criteria and indicators), which includes social, environmental and economic issues. The main certification systems in the world, FSC and PEFC, have adopted this structure in their forest management standards. This work aims to evaluate the perception of experts in Brazil, Spain and Portugal regarding the level of difficulty to implement forest certification applying the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The principal results indicated that, in general, the principles related to environmental aspects are considered the most complicated to comply, the social aspects are much more difficult to achieve in the case of Brazil, and the economic aspects are not considered as an important problem in any of the three countries.

After the adoption of the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) in 2007, the Government of Japan recognised the Ainu as an indigenous people in 2008, and it began de...

To support human well-being, green (or ecological) infrastructure policy stresses the need to sustain functional networks of representative terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems for the sus- tainable provision of multiple ecosystem services. Implementing this means that the com- plexity of interactions between social and ecological systems at multiple spatial scales and levels of governance needs to be understood. Place-based knowledge production and learn- ing through integration of different research disciplines in collaboration with actors and stakeholders (i.e. transdisciplinary research) is a key feature to achieve this goal. Using a suite of local landscapes and regions on the European continent’s West and East as a labora- tory, we developed and applied a step-wise approach to produce knowledge and encourage learning towards functional green infrastructures. Our diagnoses of forest landscapes show that the functionality for wood production and biodiversity conservation was inversely relat- ed in the gradient from long to short forest management histories. In Europe’s West there is a need for increased quantity of, and more functional, protected areas; diversification of management methods; and landscape restoration. In NW Russia there are opportunities to intensify forest management, and to continue the land-sparing approach with zoning for different functions, thus reducing biodiversity loss. Examples of diagnoses of social systems included the evaluation of comprehensive planning in Sweden, outcomes for biodiversity conservation of forest certification in Lithuania, and learning from environmental managers. We conclude that the main challenge for securing functional green infrastructure is poor cross-sectoral integration. Treatment of social-ecological systems requires knowledge-based collaboration and learning. The diversity of landscape histories and governance legacies on the European continent’s West and East, including Russia, offers grand opportunities for both knowledge production about performance targets for green infrastructure functionality, as well as learning to adapt governance and management to regional contexts. Integrating project funding for both researchers and stakeholder collaboration is a necessary strategy to fill the transdisciplinary research agenda. However, formal and informal disciplinary and administrative barriers can limit team building despite self-reflection and experience.

The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) aims to promote environmentally responsible forest management globally. However, quantifiable evidence of effects of FSC on forest management practices ...

Expanding the use of eco-labeled wood flooring in China is an important step in achieving the country's sustainable development goals. For a deep understanding of the relationship between the knowledge of the eco-label and consumer preferences for certified wood flooring in China, this study assessed consumers' purchase intention (PI) and price premium (PP) for Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)- and China Environmental Labeling (CEL)-labeled wood flooring versus nonlabeled wood flooring. A total of 367 face-to-face interviews were conducted at building material markets in Chongqing City with visitors planning to purchase wood flooring in March 2018. The results showed, first, that 21 percent of respondents knew the FSC label, and 65 percent of respondents intended to buy FSC-labeled wood flooring with a PP of 41 CNY/m2. Second, 46 percent of respondents knew the CEL label, and 81 percent of respondents intended to buy CEL-labeled wood flooring with a PP of 48 CNY/m2. Third, the knowledge of the FSC label positively affected consumers' PI and PP, but the knowledge of the CEL label only influenced PI for certified wood flooring. This study showed that the eco-label knowledge played a main role in consumer preferences for certified wood products and suggested that different strategies should be considered in promoting FSC- and CEL-labeled wood products in the Chongqing market.

Sustainable forest biomass production is receiving particular attention in bioeconomy policies. This results in an intensified pressure on the companies in the forest-based industry to improve their social and environmental management practices. To address this issue, country-specific governance frameworks are used; these frameworks involve a mix of mandatory or voluntary, public or private regulatory systems. A stringent legal system puts a strong emphasis on command and control instruments, a situation common to many of the post-socialist countries in Europe. As a response to insufficient governmental activities, private-market-based instruments, such as certification standards, are employed to demonstrate the sustainability of timber biomass-based supply chains. This trend is also visible in Romania, where despite the stringent legal framework, a large number of owners and companies have opted for voluntary certification. We evaluated how much of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC®) standard used for forest management certification is contingent on legal rules, and we concluded that 69% of the standard requirements are de jure addressed. We also evaluated, from a legal perspective, the non-conformities identified between 2008 and 2017 in the 108 FSC audit reports. We document that de facto, the implementation of the legal system faces essential enforcement problems since 54% of the identified non-conformities represent a violation of laws. The three main non-compliances with the legal requirements are related to harvesting operations, a key activity to be addressed in supply chain management. Hence, the empirical evidences of this research highlight that the Romanian exhaustive legal frameworks with no flexibility in terms of compliance coupled with the governmental enforcement failures create a risky business environment for the companies operating in the forest industry.

Much of the discourse on the sustainability of forestry resources revolves around certified forestland. It is typically assumed that certified forestland is the hallmark of sustainable forestry. This reasoning has led to a general perception that uncertified forestlands are not sustainably managed. In this regard, the role of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) Fiber Sourcing Standard is instrumental in promoting sustainable forest management on uncertified forestlands. We used an advanced spatial approach to determine the influence of the SFI Fiber Sourcing Standard over space and time on Georgia's forestlands. We also assessed differences in the implementation rate of forestry Best Management Practices (BMPs) in Georgia on harvested sites located within the sourcing radius of mills certified to SFI Fiber Sourcing Standard relative to those harvest sites located outside the sourcing radius of certified mills. Our results suggest that the SFI Fiber Sourcing Standard affects 80% or more of total forestland in Georgia. We also found that the average BMP implementation rate on harvested sites located within the sourcing radius (about 65 km) of certified mills is about 2% higher relative to harvested sites located outside the sourcing radius of such mills over time. Our results indicate that the SFI Fiber Sourcing Standard is helping in ensuring sustainability of forestlands in Georgia, as forestry BMPs are an important indicator of sustainable forest management. We hope our results will bring clarity to the overall sustainability of uncertified forestlands in Georgia and other forested regions in North America in the context of global private forest governance systems like the SFI Fiber Sourcing Standard.