Forest Certification in Developing and Transitioning ... - UTas ePrints

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forest certification in developing and transitioning countries
the emergence of forest certification
Initial Support
A country assessment on forest certification, commissioned by the interim group
behind the formation of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), was undertaken in
PNG in 1993 (Bun 1993). The study was coordinated by Jamie Ervin and undertaken
by Yati Bun and the findings were presented at the FSC Founding Assembly in Toronto,
Canada later that year. Shortly afterwards, forest certification commenced in PNG
when the Bainings Community Forestry programme, based in Rabaul, East New
Britain Province, was certified by SGS in July 1994.
The certificate was for five years with an annual review. Even then, despite the
income generated by certified timber, there was little or no interest in forest certification
by stakeholders. In the mid 1990s, SGS conducted a few training workshops for
forest industry and government officials but there was no further interest.
For the 1993 certification country assessment in PNG, individuals and organisations
were interviewed from social, environmental and economic sectors. These eventually
formed into chambers for the development of a national FSC working group.
However, the response for the FSC certification proposal from all stakeholders, particularly
large scale logging companies, was poor. Major forest companies were of the
view that forest certification was only for the smaller firms. The assessment report
made the following five recommendations:
●
FSC should be a general umbrella body, with clearly defined terms of
reference and legally incorporated;
●
PNG needed help to establish a national FSC working group;
●
Where there was a conflict between FSC provisions and PNG laws, the
latter would prevail;
●
Allowances should be made for periodic review to permit changes as the
process evolved; and
●
Representation on the national board should be fair, with no single group
able to dominate the board.
In the same year a delegation from PNG composed of Yati Bun (FSP), David
Vosseler, Kalit Kelly (WWF South Pacific PNG Program) and Sasa Zibe (VDT) was
invited to Toronto for the international FSC Founding Assembly.
By 1994 the major players that introduced forest certification in PNG were NGOs,
especially the Pacific Heritage Foundation based in Rabaul, East New Britain Province.
PHF managed the Bainings community forestry programme that was subsidised by
B&Q of UK and it was one of the first community forestry projects in the world to be
certified by SGS under the auspices of the FSC. This PHF-managed project demonstrated
that community forestry and forest certification had the potential to preserve
high levels of natural tropical production forests. A field study carried out on the
Bainings site showed that certified portable sawmilling had less environmental impact
than uncertified large-scale logging operations (Lindemalm 1997).
yale school of forestry & environmental studies