FSC reflected in scientific and professional literature
FSC reflected in scientific and professional literature
FSC reflected in scientific and professional literature
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Forest Stewardship Council<br />
2.5.2 Complex social, <strong>in</strong>stitutional <strong>and</strong> economic relations<br />
Bolivian community forest<br />
Matthew Markopoulos (2002) 257 describes the <strong>in</strong>digenous people Lomerío Community Forest<br />
Management Project <strong>in</strong> Santa Cruz, Bolivia: S<strong>in</strong>ce 1986 25 communities, under the direction<br />
of their umbrella organization CICOL, have participated <strong>in</strong> the development of a vertically <strong>in</strong>tegrated<br />
sawmill enterprise designed both to generate material benefits <strong>and</strong> to secure legal<br />
recognition for long-st<strong>and</strong><strong>in</strong>g territorial claims. F<strong>in</strong>ancial <strong>and</strong> technical support for this undertak<strong>in</strong>g<br />
has been provided by the NGO “Support for the Peasants-Indigenous People (…)” <strong>and</strong>,<br />
latterly, by the Bolivia Susta<strong>in</strong>able Forest Management Project.” In 1996 the project was <strong>FSC</strong><br />
certified. Markopoulos summarizes the impacts of the certification:<br />
“High st<strong>and</strong>ards of management with<strong>in</strong> the project, as well as new forest legislation that<br />
has imposed strict st<strong>and</strong>ards for <strong>in</strong>ventories, plans <strong>and</strong> other tools of management, have<br />
limited the impact of certification on forest management practices. However, (…)<br />
certification has obliged the project to prepare a protected forest area plan [See above<br />
2.1 – the editor]. Certification identified debilitat<strong>in</strong>g faults <strong>in</strong> the social <strong>and</strong> <strong>in</strong>stitutional<br />
relations of the project. In address<strong>in</strong>g these weaknesses, the project has refocused<br />
attention on the community, rather than CICOL or any other entity, as the basic sociopolitical<br />
unit of forest management. Certification has also led to a redef<strong>in</strong>ition of<br />
community roles <strong>and</strong> responsibilities <strong>in</strong> forest management <strong>and</strong> enterprise<br />
adm<strong>in</strong>istration, <strong>and</strong> has emphasized the central role of the community <strong>in</strong> project<br />
decision-mak<strong>in</strong>g. Indeed, without certification, it is likely that the conflicts engendered by<br />
enterprise development would have received far less attention. Two of the Lomerío<br />
project’s ma<strong>in</strong> expectations of certification were higher prices <strong>and</strong> greater market<br />
security. With support from BOLFOR <strong>and</strong> several wholesalers <strong>and</strong> secondary processors<br />
(both <strong>in</strong> Bolivia <strong>and</strong> abroad), the project has found new export markets <strong>and</strong> substantial<br />
price premiums for several lesser-known timber species. However, several caveats<br />
apply to Lomerío’s market success:<br />
1 Higher timber prices have not led to significantly higher community <strong>in</strong>comes, ow<strong>in</strong>g<br />
to the f<strong>in</strong>ancial dem<strong>and</strong>s of the undercapitalized communal sawmill.<br />
2 The adm<strong>in</strong>istrative <strong>and</strong> managerial capabilities of the sawmill enterprise are limited,<br />
<strong>and</strong> the dem<strong>and</strong> for certified timber is be<strong>in</strong>g met only with difficulty.<br />
257 Markopoulos, Matthew D. (2002): Role of Certification <strong>in</strong> Community Based Enterprises. In: In Meid<strong>in</strong>ger, E.,<br />
Elliott, C. <strong>and</strong> Oesten, G.(eds). Social <strong>and</strong> political dimensions of forest certification, http://www.forstbuch.de (as of<br />
June 2008)<br />
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