Landscapes Forest and Global Change - ESA - Escola Superior ...

L.A.M. da Silva & E. Shimanki 2010. The certification of forest management and its contribution to the rights of workers
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2. In search of decent work in the Brazilian Forest Sector
The concept of forest management has emerged as a form of control of productive forestry
practices, through the recovery in the market for products tha came from responsible forests
management. To the FSC, the certification Principles and Criteria to a given Forest
Management unit, St (P & C FSC) is applicable to all types of forests (tropical, boreal and
temperate) and management types (native or plantation). In this paper, good management means,
as Viana (2002, p.20) which refers to "the best management practices applicable to a particular
forest management unit, considering its characteristics and sociocultural constraints,
environmental and economic and the technical and scientific knowledge existing. "
According to the International Labour Organisation, decent work involves the opportunity to
realize a productive work with equitable remuneration, safety at the workplace and social
protection for families, better prospects for personal development and social integration,
organization and participation in decisions affecting their lives. Considering that in the nineties,
Brazil experienced a productive framework for restructuring, with the reduced presence of
workers in society and the state with a consequent decrease of social rights.
This problem accompanied by the employment disruption, and the precarious working
conditions, such factors contributed to increase the worker´s health injuries. And that was only
in 1988 that Brazil was known as a Democratic State of Law according to its Constitution, and
that in its Chapter II, about the Social Rights, that rural workers began having the same rights
that the urban workers had.
Considering that the understanding of society in recent years, is much more improved about
environmental issues, sustainability and current resources for environmental monitoring based
on high technologies, have allowed a closer society accompaniment on forest management and
their environmental impacts.
According to Busch (2008) it is a challenge for entrepreneurs to show the consumers how these
issues have been object of concern. In this sense, the certification process in the forest
management appears as an excellent response to the consumer as well, contributing to garantee
decent working conditions for workers in this sector.
To certify the management, the FSC uses criteria and principles which support the responsible
management in compliance with environmental, socio-cultural and economic aspects. The
principles to be observed are ten, however, is the principle number 4 (four) entitled: Community
relations and workers' rights. Stipulates that forest management should maintain or enhance
long-term social welfare and economic development of forest workers and local communities.
As the principles are more evident if there is respect for decent work.
The criteria to be observed and / or evidenced in this principle:
1.Job opportunities, training and other services should be given to the inserted or
communities or the ones that are adjacent to areas of forest management.
2 Forest management should achieve or exceed all applicable laws and / or regulations
related to health and safety of their workers and their families.
3. Must be guaranteed the rights of workers to organize and voluntarily negotiate with
their employers, as outlined in Conventions 87 and 98 of the International Labour
Organisation (ILO).
Forest Landscapes and Global Change-New Frontiers in Management, Conservation and Restoration. Proceedings of the IUFRO Landscape Ecology
Working Group International Conference, September 21-27, 2010, Bragança, Portugal. J.C. Azevedo, M. Feliciano, J. Castro & M.A. Pinto (eds.)
2010, Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, Bragança, Portugal.