2. How can FSC really start to deliver on its mission in the South?

Summary 2, oct. 10-13, 2002; thread 2
Summary 5, oct. 14-27, 2002; thread 2
Summary 7, oct. 20/27- nov. 1, 2002; all threads

By Åsa Tham, Chair of FSC AC

Background

The origin of forest certification is linked with the concerns regarding tropical deforestation, unsustainable logging and forest fires in the 1980s. Certification was conceived as a market-based instrument to promote sound forest management systems that could act as a tool to promote forest conservation and sustainable development.

Despite its original tropical focus, certification became an instrument used more by temperate and boreal forest producers than tropical ones. As of 2002, only 15% of all forests certified by FSC were in the "South", which, in contrast, holds 88% of the world's forest cover. A large fraction of the certified tropical forests are plantations. A tiny fraction is comprised of traditional and indigenous communities in tropical forest areas. Since it's creation in 1993 FSC has established its world organization network based on country initiatives in certification. It should be recognized that 31 National Initiatives have been created consisting of 17 National Working Groups and 14 Contact Persons. Twelve Working groups are operational in temperate and boreal countries, the remaining five in Latin America. Of the 12 Working Groups in temperate and boreal forests only two are in "Southern" countries. In Africa FSC is represented by just two contact persons and in Asia by just one.

Some of the reasons for this situation are:

• The costs of certification can seem very high for under resourced operations in developing countries;

• Civil society is often less able to participate in stakeholder processes such as FSC in developing countries, due to a combination of lack of resources, poor communications, less strong networks of NGO's and in some countries restricted freedom;

• FSC certification requires quite formalised management processes and planning and this is not well established in some regions so there is a big need for investment in forest management before certification would be possible;

• Many community run operations in the South are not well linked with markets seeking certified products so it is difficult for them to realise the benefits of certification;

• Most certifiers are based in Europe and North America which increases the costs of inspection for operations outside these regions.

There is an urgent need to change this reality.

There is a need to:

• understand the factors that limit access of forest producers in the south to certification

• propose actions to overcome these limiting factors

This e-mail conference opens up a possibility for all FSC-members and friends to make a contribution to overcoming this situation so that FSC can really start to deliver for forests in the South.

The FSC objectives conference is funded by DFID-FRP (UK) projectnr ZF0185, and facilitated by Treemail (NL)
For more information please contact: info@fscobjectives.org