The costs and benefits of certification for community forests managed by traditional peoples in south-eastern Tanzania

Abstract

Community forests managed by indigenous, traditional, and local communities must be environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable for their benefits to persist. Certification of community forests communicates that products harvested there meet these standards. However, certification of community forests has been limited, particularly in Africa. Financial analysis, review of audit reports, and a survey of forest managers were used to explore monetary and non-monetary social costs and benefits of Forest Stewardship Council certification for 14 timberproducing community forests managed by traditional peoples in south-eastern Tanzania. Direct monetary costs of certification outweighed monetary benefits, threatening economic sustainability. Nevertheless, forest managers believed that community forests should retain certification because they valued its non-monetary benefits, which were consistent with the Forest Stewardship Council's social principles. This study demonstrates that certification of community forests can help indigenous and traditional peoples ensure safe working conditions, strengthen forest tenure rights, sustain multiple community benefits, and protect culturally-important sites, however, financial barriers persist.

Development and validation of a scale to measure the benefits of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification

“…In order for the principles and criteria to be internalized, investments are needed that take time to be returned, often making certification unfeasible for small companies (Frey et al . 2022).…”

“…2018, Sugiura and Oki 2018). For (Frey et al . 2022) the direct costs of certification (training, organization and storage of documents, packaging, FSC label, audits and hiring of qualified people) outweigh the monetary benefits, threatening the economic sustainability of certification in small companies.…”

“…As certified companies invest in local communities, involving them in decisions that concern and impact them on a daily basis, this process contributes to building a movement of trust and greater engagement between the parties (Frey et al . 2022, Galati et al .…”

A call for a wider perspective on sustainable forestry: Introduction to the Special Issue on The Social Impacts of Logging

“…In addition to being part of the broader trend of decentralization in forestry (Frey et al 2022), the rechannelling of forestry benefits through sub-national and sometimes customary authorities also relates to efforts to move away from situations where logging companies function as a ‘State within a State’ (Singer 2008). This is at least the case in Central African countries, where companies were expected to directly support the development of local communities by providing both cash and in-kind benefits (Cerutti et al 2017: 60).…”

“…Moreover, there still is little evidence available to assess the results of these efforts (Burivalova et al 2017, Cerutti et al 2017, Defo et al 2013, Ehrenberg-Azcárate and Peña-Claros 2020, IPBES 2022, Naito and Ishikawa 2020), and very few empirical studies focus on the social outcomes of certified logging (e.g. Frey et al 2022, Kalonga and Kulindwa 2017, Leite et al 2017, Tsanga et al 2014).…”