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Forests
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Forest Certification and Sustainable Governance
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Forest Certification and Sustainable Governance

A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907). This special issue belongs to the section "Forest Economics, Policy, and Social Science".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 July 2023) | Viewed by 5714

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Bogdan Popa

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Silviculture and Forest Engineering, Transilvania University, Brașov, Romania
Interests: forest economy; forest policy and regulation; protected areas management; forest certification; forest institutions; ecosystem services
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Voluntary forest certification and governance institutions and regulations for sustainable forest management have developed complex interactions involving government actors, the private sector, and civil society. In high-income countries, forest certification has been supported by an existing capacity to comply with sustainability regulations and, due to high rates of adoption, hybrid governance is considered. In low- and lower-middle-income countries, forest certification is seen as a complementary support for law enforcement, illegality reduction, and resource utilization effectiveness, also being seen as a potential non-state governance tool. However, despite this potential, it is still not yet clear to which extent forest certification, having in mind its voluntary nature, is a viable alternative for traditional governance. Additionally, forest certification low rate of adoption in tropical forests is still an unsolved issue, especially in terms of seeking solutions for improved management practices. Some other perspectives, including the capacity to address environmentally sensitive markets, mobilize stakeholders, increase inclusion, and reduce poverty, are worth investigating when it comes to better understanding the complementarity between forest certification and sustainable governance. For this Special Issue, we encourage studies promoting knowledge regarding forest certification and its complicated relationship with forest sector governance instruments and institutions.

Prof. Dr. Bogdan Popa
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Forests is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • forest certification
  • forest sector governance
  • forest regulations
  • sustainable forest management
  • voluntary non-state schemes
  • governance tools

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 2824 KiB  
Article
The Effect of Forest Certification on Log Sale Prices: A Case Study in Northwestern Turkey
by Tuğba Deniz
Forests 2023, 14(3), 596; https://doi.org/10.3390/f14030596 - 17 Mar 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1896
Abstract
Forest certification is a tool contributing to the achievement of sustainable and responsible forest management. It also presents consumers with a market to purchase products coming from responsibly managed forests and provides forest managers with improved market access for their products. Even if [...] Read more.
Forest certification is a tool contributing to the achievement of sustainable and responsible forest management. It also presents consumers with a market to purchase products coming from responsibly managed forests and provides forest managers with improved market access for their products. Even if forest certification incurs higher costs that affect the sale price, consumers generally have a greater willingness to pay more for certified products than for uncertified products. The objective of this study is to analyze the changes in the sales prices of oak and beech log in auction sales occurring during certified and uncertified periods at Demirköy Forest Enterprise, which received an FSC Certificate in 2014. For this aim, the Chow test was used and linear regression models were developed. It was found that the log sales prices of certified and uncertified periods are statistically different from each other at p = 0.05 significance level. As a consequence, it was determined that there was an increase in price of approximately 12% for oak and 19% for beech at log sales after certification. This study deals with only part of the economic impact of certification. The results can contribute to the forest certification database in order to support the decision-makers (managers and wood manufacturers) in their strategic decisions. The study will enable the forestry sector to see the possible reflections of certification practices in the country and the world markets. The effect of certification should be further investigated by including other factors (supply-demand situation of the forest industry, sales of neighboring enterprises, market conditions, etc.) affecting log sales prices. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Forest Certification and Sustainable Governance)
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14 pages, 763 KiB  
Article
Understanding Nonindustrial Private Forest Landowners’ Perspectives on the Benefits Associated with Sustainable Forest Management Certification
by Nana Tian, Sagar Godar Chhetri, Ana Gutierrez-Castillo, Jianbang Gan and Matthew Pelkki
Forests 2023, 14(2), 241; https://doi.org/10.3390/f14020241 - 28 Jan 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1443
Abstract
Sustainable forest management provides ecological, economic, and social benefits to society. Sustaining these benefits in Arkansas relies on 345,000 nonindustrial private forest (NIPF) landowners who own 4.2 million hectares (10.4 million acres) of forests. Forest certification is a voluntary and market-based mechanism aimed [...] Read more.
Sustainable forest management provides ecological, economic, and social benefits to society. Sustaining these benefits in Arkansas relies on 345,000 nonindustrial private forest (NIPF) landowners who own 4.2 million hectares (10.4 million acres) of forests. Forest certification is a voluntary and market-based mechanism aimed to enhance such societal benefits while providing incentives or benefits for the landowners. Understanding NIPF landowners’ perspectives on the benefits associated with adopting forest certification programs would be useful in identifying potential participants and in designing outreach and communication programs to elevate the interests of less interested landowners in participating in certification programs. Using data collected from a mixed mode of mail and online (Qualtrics) survey of NIPF landowners in Arkansas, this study examined the potential factors that influence landowners’ perspectives on different benefits associated with adopting sustainable forest management certification by employing binary logistic regression. Results revealed that ownership and forestland characteristics (i.e., ownership size, whether having a harvesting plan), as well as ownership motivations (biodiversity protection, financial investment, hunting), were significantly associated with landowners’ agreement on the benefits of increasing timber growth and health, expanding markets, having a price premium for certified timber, enhancing public recognition, more environmental-friendly harvesting, and better management practices. These findings improve the understanding of landowners’ expectations after certifying their forestland and provide baseline information for improving certification program design to attract more adoption among private and family landowners. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Forest Certification and Sustainable Governance)
14 pages, 1666 KiB  
Article
Understanding Stakeholders’ Perspectives on the Indonesia–EU FLEGT-VPA Scheme Implementation
by Yoga Hadiprasetya and Jin-Oh Kim
Forests 2022, 13(11), 1762; https://doi.org/10.3390/f13111762 - 26 Oct 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1761
Abstract
Illegal logging comprises illegal activities that impact the economy, environment, and social aspects. This situation is addressed by the Forest, Law Enforcement, Governance, and Trade Voluntary Partnership Agreement (FLEGT-VPA) scheme. In 2014, Indonesia and the European Union ratified the FLEGT-VPA and then started [...] Read more.
Illegal logging comprises illegal activities that impact the economy, environment, and social aspects. This situation is addressed by the Forest, Law Enforcement, Governance, and Trade Voluntary Partnership Agreement (FLEGT-VPA) scheme. In 2014, Indonesia and the European Union ratified the FLEGT-VPA and then started the FLEGT Licensing in 2016. This study intended to discover stakeholder satisfaction from the perspectives of the government institutions, civil society organizations, and the private sector on the Indonesia–EU FLEGT-VPA scheme, and it was accomplished by performing a mixed-method sequential explanatory research design. First, the quantitative data, collected through a web-based questionnaire (n = 103), resulted in the stakeholders’ satisfaction (dependent variable), in connection with all of the independent variables, showed that all three stakeholders were satisfied with sustainable forest management, new market opportunities, timber legality, and law enforcement. In contrast, they were slightly satisfied with the social safeguards. From the measurement of the multiple regression model, the results showed that each independent variable has a positive and significant effect on stakeholder satisfaction. We discovered that timber legality performed the highest significance to stakeholders’ satisfaction. Second, qualitative data were collected to briefly explain the preceding quantitative findings through web-based in-depth and focus group interviews (n = 20). All three stakeholders seemed to agree to the scheme implementation that supported the application of sustainable forest management principles, improved the legality and traceability, promoted good governance, and strengthened the social safeguards, while it improved the new market opportunities to a lesser degree. Finally, all three stakeholders explained that there are still main challenges to be solved in improving the scheme implementation such as (1) administrative problems mainly experienced by small and medium enterprises; (2) uncompetitive FLEGT license products that are not well known to buyers; and (3) the absence of incentives given by both parties (Indonesia and the EU) to the FLEGT-licensed product exporters. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Forest Certification and Sustainable Governance)
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