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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2. Impact <strong>in</strong> <strong>and</strong> beyond the forest: 2.5 Economic effects<br />
3 The extent to which higher prices are the result of certification per se, rather than<br />
BOLFOR’s market development work, is open to question. (…)<br />
There can be little doubt that, without certification, the Lomerío project would now<br />
be <strong>in</strong> a critical state, or possibly even moribund.” 258<br />
2.5.3 Economic aspects<br />
As previously referred to, researchers from IMAFLORA (2008) note that, when talk<strong>in</strong>g to<br />
members of certified communities:<br />
“In general, the more positive aspects mentioned were economic <strong>and</strong> social <strong>and</strong> the more<br />
negative referred to the certification process itself <strong>and</strong> its cost. (...) it was possible to<br />
register a high degree of dissatisfaction among certified community producers <strong>in</strong> relation<br />
to wood sales <strong>and</strong> the correspond<strong>in</strong>g economic returns. The ma<strong>in</strong> reasons for such<br />
dissatisfaction was the difficulty <strong>in</strong> access<strong>in</strong>g the market for certified wood, <strong>and</strong> the<br />
absence of aggregated value <strong>in</strong> certified wood. On the other h<strong>and</strong>, a significant number of<br />
community producers mentioned that, although there is no price differential between<br />
certified <strong>and</strong> non certified wood, certified wood is better accepted by the market. (…) In<br />
addition, the cooperative was us<strong>in</strong>g f<strong>in</strong>ancial <strong>and</strong> human resources to implement structural<br />
changes to better carry out its tasks related to the commercialization of certified wood.” 259<br />
Costs of certification<br />
The costs of forest certification are often mentioned as an obstacle for forest operations to<br />
apply for certification, especially as a burden for the small <strong>and</strong> low <strong>in</strong>tensity operations.<br />
Nevertheless not many studies have been done to analyze these costs, which are comprised<br />
of:<br />
258 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 />
259 IMAFLORA (ed.) (2008): Impact of <strong>FSC</strong> Forest Certification on Agroextractive Communities of the State of Acre,<br />
Brazil. By Ana Carol<strong>in</strong>a B. de Lima, André Luiz Novaes Keppe, Marcelo Corrêa Alves, Rodrigo Fern<strong>and</strong>o Maule<br />
<strong>and</strong> Gerd Sparovek; University of São Paulo <strong>and</strong> Entropix Eng<strong>in</strong>eer<strong>in</strong>g Company. http://www.ra<strong>in</strong>forestalliance.org/resources/documents/san_coffee_acre.pdf<br />
(as of July 2008)<br />
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