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

forest certification in guatemala
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Economic Effects
Improved Administration of Community Enterprises
To become certified, many operations were required to improve their financial,
administrative and management systems. Many of the conditions were focused on
establishing a transparent financial system to evaluate and monitor costs and
incomes. In some cases, it was required that the enterprises hire a manager, and information
on the financial aspects be divulged at members' assemblies or even among
the entire community.
Increased Timber Prices
Temporarily, certified wood has fetched higher prices. This, however, has not always
been perceived by the sellers, as buyers of non-certified wood have frequently undercut
the price advantage of certified wood by offering the same price for non-certified
wood. This is a clear example of skewed benefit capturing among the first links of
supply chains of uncertified tropical timber, illustrating that there is scope for paying
higher prices to small-scale wood producers irrespective of forest certification.
Despite the generally low, if not absent, willingness-to-pay higher prices for certified
wood, forest certification has contributed to increased transparency surrounding the
wood prices paid to log and sawn wood producers.
Access to Incentives
INAB awarded management incentives to certified cooperatives or municipal Ejidos,
such as Bethel and La Técnica, because of increased confidence regarding the sustainability
of their forestry operations.
Access to Niche Markets
Certification has attracted new buyers searching for certified wood. However, a large
proportion of certified wood continues to be sold through traditional distribution
channels, which show no preference whatsoever for certified products. In some cases,
certification has required communities to prepare a business plan, including a marketing
strategy to fully take advantage of their certified status. It remains yet to be
seen whether this translates into concrete advantages in terms of market access.
Environmental Effects
Improved Management Planning
Part of the improvement in management planning lay in improving weak areas of the
management plans, as follows:
●
Improved estimations of harvesting intensity. In many cases, cutting cycles
were proposed which did not correspond to the harvested volume and the
regeneration rates of the species concerned. To avoid forest degradation
yale school of forestry & environmental studies