Comparing Sustainable Forest Management Certifications Standards: A Meta-analysis
To solve problems caused by conventional forest management, forest certification has emerged as a driver of sustainable forest management. Several sustainable forest management certification systems exist, including the Forest Stewardship Council and those endorsed by the Programme for the Endorseme...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Resilience Alliance
2011-03-01
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| Series: | Ecology and Society |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol16/iss1/art3/ |
| _version_ | 1818825475637641216 |
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| author | Michael Rawson. Clark Joelyn Sarrah. Kozar |
| author_facet | Michael Rawson. Clark Joelyn Sarrah. Kozar |
| author_sort | Michael Rawson. Clark |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | To solve problems caused by conventional forest management, forest certification has emerged as a driver of sustainable forest management. Several sustainable forest management certification systems exist, including the Forest Stewardship Council and those endorsed by the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification, such as the Canadian Standards Association - Sustainable Forestry Management Standard CAN/CSA - Z809 and Sustainable Forestry Initiative. For consumers to use certified products to meet their own sustainability goals, they must have an understanding of the effectiveness of different certification systems. To understand the relative performance of three systems, we determined: (1) the criteria used to compare the Forest Stewardship Council, Canadian Standards Association - Sustainable Forestry Management, and Sustainable Forestry Initiative, (2) if consensus exists regarding their ability to achieve sustainability goals, and (3) what research gaps must be filled to improve our understanding of how forest certification systems affect sustainable forest management. We conducted a qualitative meta-analysis of 26 grey literature references (books, industry and nongovernmental organization publications) and 9 primary literature references (articles in peer-reviewed academic journals) that compared at least two of the aforementioned certification systems. The Forest Stewardship Council was the highest performer for ecological health and social sustainable forest management criteria. The Canadian Standards Association - Sustainable Forestry Management and Sustainable Forestry Initiative performed best under sustainable forest management criteria of forest productivity and economic longevity of a firm. Sixty-two percent of analyses were comparisons of the wording of certification system principles or criteria; 34% were surveys of foresters or consumers. An important caveat to these results is that only one comparison was based on empirically collected field data. We recommend that future studies collect ecological and socioeconomic data from forests so purchasers can select certified forest products based on empirical evidence. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-19T00:12:22Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-6ff7a05fa46740a58126bf27fdb9a70c |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1708-3087 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-19T00:12:22Z |
| publishDate | 2011-03-01 |
| publisher | Resilience Alliance |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Ecology and Society |
| spelling | doaj.art-6ff7a05fa46740a58126bf27fdb9a70c2022-12-21T20:45:59ZengResilience AllianceEcology and Society1708-30872011-03-01161310.5751/ES-03736-1601033736Comparing Sustainable Forest Management Certifications Standards: A Meta-analysisMichael Rawson. Clark0Joelyn Sarrah. Kozar1University of AlbertaCampus Sustainability CoalitionTo solve problems caused by conventional forest management, forest certification has emerged as a driver of sustainable forest management. Several sustainable forest management certification systems exist, including the Forest Stewardship Council and those endorsed by the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification, such as the Canadian Standards Association - Sustainable Forestry Management Standard CAN/CSA - Z809 and Sustainable Forestry Initiative. For consumers to use certified products to meet their own sustainability goals, they must have an understanding of the effectiveness of different certification systems. To understand the relative performance of three systems, we determined: (1) the criteria used to compare the Forest Stewardship Council, Canadian Standards Association - Sustainable Forestry Management, and Sustainable Forestry Initiative, (2) if consensus exists regarding their ability to achieve sustainability goals, and (3) what research gaps must be filled to improve our understanding of how forest certification systems affect sustainable forest management. We conducted a qualitative meta-analysis of 26 grey literature references (books, industry and nongovernmental organization publications) and 9 primary literature references (articles in peer-reviewed academic journals) that compared at least two of the aforementioned certification systems. The Forest Stewardship Council was the highest performer for ecological health and social sustainable forest management criteria. The Canadian Standards Association - Sustainable Forestry Management and Sustainable Forestry Initiative performed best under sustainable forest management criteria of forest productivity and economic longevity of a firm. Sixty-two percent of analyses were comparisons of the wording of certification system principles or criteria; 34% were surveys of foresters or consumers. An important caveat to these results is that only one comparison was based on empirically collected field data. We recommend that future studies collect ecological and socioeconomic data from forests so purchasers can select certified forest products based on empirical evidence.http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol16/iss1/art3/Canadian Standards Association - Sustainable Forestry ManagementCSA-SFMforest certificationForest Stewardship CouncilFSCmeta-analysispublic forestsSFIsustainable forest managementSustainable Forestry Initiative |
| spellingShingle | Michael Rawson. Clark Joelyn Sarrah. Kozar Comparing Sustainable Forest Management Certifications Standards: A Meta-analysis Ecology and Society Canadian Standards Association - Sustainable Forestry Management CSA-SFM forest certification Forest Stewardship Council FSC meta-analysis public forests SFI sustainable forest management Sustainable Forestry Initiative |
| title | Comparing Sustainable Forest Management Certifications Standards: A Meta-analysis |
| title_full | Comparing Sustainable Forest Management Certifications Standards: A Meta-analysis |
| title_fullStr | Comparing Sustainable Forest Management Certifications Standards: A Meta-analysis |
| title_full_unstemmed | Comparing Sustainable Forest Management Certifications Standards: A Meta-analysis |
| title_short | Comparing Sustainable Forest Management Certifications Standards: A Meta-analysis |
| title_sort | comparing sustainable forest management certifications standards a meta analysis |
| topic | Canadian Standards Association - Sustainable Forestry Management CSA-SFM forest certification Forest Stewardship Council FSC meta-analysis public forests SFI sustainable forest management Sustainable Forestry Initiative |
| url | http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol16/iss1/art3/ |
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