FSC reflected in scientific and professional literature

Forest Stewardship Council
FERN (2004) in their comparison of eight different certification schemes find about the link
between avoiding illegal logging and voluntary forest certification schemes:
“Many link discussions on forest certification with the verification of legality, necessary to
identify illegally sourced timber. (…) forest certification schemes are not ideal tools to address
illegal logging practices, although some schemes (FSC and CSA) are notably better
in identifying them than others. Even these schemes are not based sufficiently on the unannounced
audits, continuous sampling, and in depth chain of custody analyses that are
seen as essential for verification of legality in cases where fraud could be a problem. Furthermore,
certification schemes do not address – or adequately address – the legality of
the non-certified timber supplies. While most certification schemes are attempting to address
the legality of non-certified timber supplies procured and purveyed by certified companies,
the procedures are still largely inadequate. It is therefore advisable to de-link the
discussions on verification of legality from the qualitative auditing of forest management
practices (p.35).” 401
Hirschberger’s study (2005) 402 of certification in Estonia states in the summary:
“Illegal logging is one of the main problems in the Estonian forest sector. FSC certification
cannot eliminate illegal logging, but the ability to trace (…) millions cubic meters of certified
timber from its origin will make illegal harvesting activities harder. It should be noted that
even illegally logged timber, which is recovered by the legal owner, cannot be sold as FSC
certified.”
Not surprisingly, Hirschberger drew the same conclusion for the Latvian CARs studied.
Guillery et al (2007) in their case studies for the FSC evaluation (see separate publication)
gives another example where FSC certification dried up illegal timber trade: In Vietnam joint
efforts of retailers and manufacturer (supported by WWF and Tropical Forest Trust) were successful
at cut-ting out an illegal supply of timber and improving social conditions in a large
sector of the forest products marketplace.
401 FERN (2004): Footprints in the Forest: Current Practice and Future Challenges in Forest Certification. FERN,
UK. www.fern.org/pubs/reports/footprints.pdf (as of June 2008)
402 Hirschberger, Peter (2005): The Effects of FSC-certification in Estonia: an analysis of CARs. WWF Forest Program.
18 p. http://www.panda.org/downloads/forests/finalanalysisestonia.pdf (as of June 2008)
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