FSC reflected in scientific and professional literature

2. Impact in and beyond the forest: 2.5 Economic effects
3 The extent to which higher prices are the result of certification per se, rather than
BOLFOR’s market development work, is open to question. (…)
There can be little doubt that, without certification, the Lomerío project would now
be in a critical state, or possibly even moribund.” 258
2.5.3 Economic aspects
As previously referred to, researchers from IMAFLORA (2008) note that, when talking to
members of certified communities:
“In general, the more positive aspects mentioned were economic and social and the more
negative referred to the certification process itself and its cost. (...) it was possible to
register a high degree of dissatisfaction among certified community producers in relation
to wood sales and the corresponding economic returns. The main reasons for such
dissatisfaction was the difficulty in accessing the market for certified wood, and the
absence of aggregated value in certified wood. On the other hand, a significant number of
community producers mentioned that, although there is no price differential between
certified and non certified wood, certified wood is better accepted by the market. (…) In
addition, the cooperative was using financial and human resources to implement structural
changes to better carry out its tasks related to the commercialization of certified wood.” 259
Costs of certification
The costs of forest certification are often mentioned as an obstacle for forest operations to
apply for certification, especially as a burden for the small and low intensity operations.
Nevertheless not many studies have been done to analyze these costs, which are comprised
of:
258 Markopoulos, Matthew D. (2002): Role of Certification in Community Based Enterprises. In: In Meidinger, E.,
Elliott, C. and Oesten, G.(eds). Social and political dimensions of forest certification, http://www.forstbuch.de (as of
June 2008)
259 IMAFLORA (ed.) (2008): Impact of FSC Forest Certification on Agroextractive Communities of the State of Acre,
Brazil. By Ana Carolina B. de Lima, André Luiz Novaes Keppe, Marcelo Corrêa Alves, Rodrigo Fernando Maule
and Gerd Sparovek; University of São Paulo and Entropix Engineering Company. http://www.rainforestalliance.org/resources/documents/san_coffee_acre.pdf
(as of July 2008)
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