Forest certification in developing countries: current status and hindrances to its adoption within a macro-framework

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.