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considerable patience as such options are not easy or<br />
cheap to implement. However, the payback in public<br />
relations and corporate social responsibility are often<br />
deemed worth the risk.<br />
PUBLIC SUPPORT FOR GREEN MARKETS<br />
In April 2009, the European Commission issued a<br />
Communication signalling its strong support for<br />
the Fair Trade movement (EC 2009). It applauded<br />
private sector initiative in this area although stopping<br />
short of mandating any action. Fair Trade focuses on<br />
social rather than environmental criteria but EU support<br />
is a positive development for the certification industry<br />
in general. Individual governments can also support biodiversity-friendly<br />
products and services through green public<br />
procurement policies and practices (see Section 5.6).<br />
Several international institutions recognise the value of<br />
encouraging products and services that take biodiversity<br />
and ecosystems into account. The CBD,<br />
UNCTAD, CITES and a growing number of countries<br />
support BioTrade activities for the promotion of<br />
goods and services derived from native biodiversity<br />
under strict sustainable development criteria.<br />
NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANISATIONS<br />
AND GREEN MARKETS<br />
REWARDING BENEFITS THROUGH PAYMENTS AND MARKETS<br />
NGOs have played a significant role in developing voluntary<br />
environmental standards for a range of products<br />
and services. WWF worked in partnership with Unilever<br />
to establish the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) for<br />
the certification of sustainably produced marine products<br />
(see Box 5.24) and has helped catalyse demand<br />
for certified timber. International NGOs such as Conservation<br />
International and WWF are currently involved in<br />
various fora addressing biofuel production e.g. the<br />
Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil.<br />
Since the mid-1990s, several non-profit organisations<br />
have been established to assess the sustainability of<br />
selected commodities and services against emerging<br />
standards on biodiversity-friendly production. These<br />
programmes are increasingly formalised through independent<br />
certification and assurance mechanisms, with<br />
both NGOs and private firms competing to offer verification<br />
and audit services (see below).<br />
CERTIFICATION OF FORESTRY PRODUCTS<br />
The International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO),<br />
established under UN auspices to administer a trade<br />
agreement between producers and consumers of tropical<br />
timber, describes sustainable forest management as<br />
forest-related activities that do “not damage the forest to<br />
the extent that its capacity to deliver products and services<br />
– such as timber, water and biodiversity conservation<br />
– is significantly reduced. Forest management should<br />
also aim to balance the needs of different forest users so<br />
that its benefits and costs are shared equitably” 28 .<br />
Several certification schemes now exist for forest management,<br />
of which two are responsible for the majority<br />
of forest certification (see Box 5.23).<br />
Between 2001 and 2005, global coverage of certified<br />
forests expanded by about 50 million hectares per year,<br />
mainly due to a rapid increase in certified forest area in<br />
North America (Figure 5.12). By 2009, 325.2 million<br />
hectares worldwide had been certified under various<br />
schemes (8.3% of total forest area: UNECE/FAO 2009).<br />
In terms of global roundwood production (i.e. sections<br />
of timber in raw unmanufactured state), approximately<br />
26% was harvested from certified forests between May<br />
2008 and May 2009. However, the rate of expansion<br />
has decreased over the last three years. Between May<br />
2008 and May 2009, the rate of increase did not exceed<br />
four million hectares (Table 5.3).<br />
This reduction in the rate of expansion of certified<br />
forests may reflect the fact that, in the developed world<br />
at least, most of the larger forest areas are already certified.<br />
Certifying forests in developing countries presents<br />
continuing challenges linked to lack of capacity,<br />
resources and incentives to participate as a significant<br />
proportion of forest areas are owned by smaller<br />
non-industrial and communal sectors. The geographical<br />
bias of certified forests towards the northern hemisphere<br />
inevitably limits the effectiveness of certification<br />
as an instrument for protecting biodiversity (see<br />
Table 5.3 and Section 5.5.2 below).<br />
<strong>TEEB</strong> FOR NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL POLICY MAKERS - CHAPTER 5: PAGE 46