Effectiveness and efficiency of forest certification

Background and Objective

In the face of accelerating forest degradation and deforestation, forest certification emerged in the early 1990s as a voluntary and market-based mechanism to promote environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial, and economically viable management of the world’s forests. A key goal of forest certification is to reduce forest degradation and deforestation while enhancing forest enterprises’ economic viability. However, whether forest certification contributes to meeting such goals is unclear. In this project we are investigating whether this is the case.

Approach

We proceed as follows:

• Systematic literature review on the efficiency and effectiveness of forest certification schemes with the aim of presenting the state of knowledge in a structured way, highlighting knowledge gaps and identifying further research needs
• Empirical study of the efficiency and effectiveness of forest certification schemes
• Development of approaches that improve the efficiency and effectiveness of forest certification systems

Our Research Questions

• What is the state of knowledge regarding the efficiency and effectiveness of forest certification systems?
• How effectively does forest certification protect against deforestation?
• How can the effectiveness and efficiency of forest certification schemes be improved?