Timber certification as a catalyst for change in forest governance in Cameroon, Indonesia, and Peru

Savilaakso, Sini; Cerutti, P.O.; Montoya-Zumaeta, Javier G.; Ruslandi,; Mendoula, Edouard Essiane; Tsanga, R.

doi:10.1080/21513732.2016.1269134

Cited by 29 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…50,53 Especially forest communities, due to the costs involved, however, have limited its adoption. Where adopted, it has promoted and shaped sustainability transition processes by introducing new concepts in national policy arenas 54,55 but simply scaling the current certification models will not lead to a regime shift. The status quo needs to change in order to make sustainable forest transitions happen.…”

Section: System Lock-insmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Global Forest Transition is a Human Affair

García¹,

Savilaakso²,

Verburg³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Forests across the world stand at the crossroad with climate and land use changes shaping their future. Despite the demonstration of political will and global efforts, forest loss, fragmentation and land degradation continue unabated. No clear evidence exists that these initiatives are working. Why are policies designed to halt deforestation and increase restoration of forest landscapes failing? A key reason for this apparent ineffectiveness lies in the failure to recognize the agency of the stakeholders involved and the adaptive capacities of the systems we seek to steer. Landscapes do not happen. We make them. They are the result of the sum of individual actions and decisions made by all stakeholders, and the interactions between these and biophysical processes. Likewise, forest transitions are not ecological, but social and behavioral. They are a product of the way humans manage ecosystems. Decision-makers need to integrate better representations of people’s agency in their mental models. We suggest possible solution pathways to overcome this key current barrier. These involve eliciting mental models behind policy decision, changing perspectives to better understand divergent points of view and refining strategies through explicit theories of change. Games designed to represent the constraints and opportunities that exist in the landscapes can help decision makers in these task.

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Section: System Lock-insmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Global Forest Transition is a Human Affair

García¹,

Savilaakso²,

Verburg³

et al. 2020

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Indonesia has one of the longest experiences with both forest certification and timber legality verification in the region, with the nature and tone of interactions between the two processes changing over time. It is widely recognized, however, that the design of Indonesia's mandatory Timber Legality Assurance System (SVLK) and Sustainable Production Forest Management standard (PHPL) applied principles and experiences from forest certification, including key elements, such as increased transparency and participation of local communities and civil society, and the requirement for third-party auditing [23]. Individuals and organizations involved in the design and implementation of certification standards, including some RAFT partners, were invited into the process to design the SVLK and PHPL regulations.…”

Section: Fragmentation Of Sustainable Forest Management Interventionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forest Certification: More Than a Market-Based Tool, Experiences from the Asia Pacific Region

Lewin

Scheyvens

et al. 2019

Sustainability

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Over the last 25 years, the global area of certified forests has grown rapidly and voluntary forest certification has become recognized as an effective tool to engage international markets in improving sustainability within forest management units. However, the bulk of this growth has occurred in North America, Northern Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, with relatively limited uptake in the tropics. Since its creation, forest certification has been largely understood as a “market-based” mechanism, in contrast to government-led policies and regulations. Through the experience of the Responsible Asia Forestry and Trade (RAFT) partnership in the Asia Pacific region, we find that the framing of forest certification as voluntary and market-based, and as a mechanism to overcome governance failure, has created an artificial dichotomy. In this dichotomy, voluntary certification and regulatory measures to promote sustainable forest management are conceived of and pursued largely independently. We argue that it is more constructive to view them as complementary approaches that share a common goal of increasing sustainability across the forestry sector. In practice, forest certification interacts with conventional governance institutions and mechanisms. Understanding these interactions and their implications, as well as additional possibilities for interaction, will help in realizing the full potential of forest certification.

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“…Furthermore, verification and certification in forest exploitation is compulsory in Cameroun and the country has signed the Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) of the European Union's Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) program and African Forest Law Enforcement and Trade (AFLEG) (Savilaakso et al, 2017;Tegegne et al, 2017). The introduction of forest certification schemes has led to positive changes in management practices and increased social and environmental performance potential and could contribute to the sustainable management of forest resources in Central Africa (Atyi et al, 2013).…”

Section: Forestry Sectormentioning

confidence: 99%

Mainstreaming climate adaptation into sectoral policies in Central Africa: Insights from Cameroun

Nkiaka

Lovett

2018

Environmental Science & Policy

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While considerable advances have been made in mainstreaming climate adaptation into sectoral policies in most regions across Africa, little is known about Central Africa (CA) even though the sub-region has enormous potentials to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions through the Congo basin forest. This paper presents an in-depth analysis of the progress made in mainstreaming climate adaptation into sectoral policies in CA based on insights from Cameroun. To achieve this, 30 strategic policy documents published by the government of Cameroun covering different aspects of climate adaptation were exploited. Additional information was obtained from interviews with 27 stakeholders working in relevant government ministries/institutions and international organizations. Results show that significant progress has been made to mainstream climate adaptation into the forestry and energy sectors. This has been facilitated by the putting in place of national policies that consider climate change impacts and mitigation/adaptation in these sectors. Meanwhile, little progress has been recorded in the water and agricultural. The lack of progress in these sectors can be attributed to the absence of national policies that take into account climate change impacts in these sectors. Overall results show that the National Adaptation Plan of Action has played a key role in enhancing the mainstreaming of climate adaptation into sectoral policies in Cameroun. Notwithstanding the progress recorded, many obstacles such as the lack of human and financial resources still exist. Stakeholders proposed a series of potentially useful solutions to tackling obstacles hindering cross-sectoral mainstreaming initiatives. This paper contributes to contemporary debates on the extent to which adaptation mainstreaming is happening at national level in sub-Saharan Africa, and reveals the obstacles that need to be addressed in order to sustain this initiative in CA and other regions of the continent.

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Timber certification as a catalyst for change in forest governance in Cameroon, Indonesia, and Peru

Cited by 29 publications

References 37 publications

The Global Forest Transition is a Human Affair

The Global Forest Transition is a Human Affair

Forest Certification: More Than a Market-Based Tool, Experiences from the Asia Pacific Region

Mainstreaming climate adaptation into sectoral policies in Central Africa: Insights from Cameroun

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