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

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forest certification in developing and transitioning countries
forest law enforcement with external actors. However, it should be emphasised that
forest certification started in Gabon at the same time as a more comprehensive effort
was made to improve governance by the national government with the support of
international organisations and donor countries. For example, as noted above, during
the last 10 to 15 years the political context has been progressing towards a more
democratic system with multiple political parties.
It is difficult to say how much the advent of forest certification has influenced the
reforms made in the forestry sector of Gabon during the 1990s when certification was
introduced. Many other initiatives to improve forest management practices in Gabon
were being implemented at the international level at the same time. For example, the
ITTO, within its Objective 2000, supported the efforts of Gabon by financing pilot
projects designed to improve the technical settings of forest management in Gabon.
Similarly, the World Bank supported the government of Gabon in the drafting of a
Forest Sector Programme and encouraged the country to revise the institutional and
legal framework of forest management to make sustainable development in the sector
possible. Nevertheless, the officers of the Ministry of Forest Economy of the
government of Gabon recognize that the perspective of forest certification by
international non-government bodies has contributed to the adoption of policy
orientations favourable to sustainable forest management. The government feared
the negative publicity that would result from failure to certify Gabon’s forest
concessions due to lack of technical and regulatory tools to support sustainable forest
management. Forest certification appears to be one of the factors that have pushed
forest policy decision makers to define new technical and legal standards for the
management of forest resources in Gabon.
Social
In Gabon, the presence of the logging companies in remote rural areas has always
been associated with some contribution to local development. In the past, logging
companies contributed to the construction and maintenance of the road
infrastructure, which was use both to transport harvested timber products and for
local development. Each logging company, depending on its location, builds a school
for the employees’ children and a health centre. This continues to be done, but
nowadays logging companies also contribute to local development through direct
financial resources put at the disposal of local communities who are required to set
up local development committees for the management of such funds. The local
committees determine development priorities and design small projects to be
financed by the annual contributions received from logging companies. The amounts
of these financial contributions are determined as part of the contract agreed upon
during the development of the forest management plan. This new approach stems
from the forestry laws adopted in 2002 (Article 251). However, forest certification has
made the process more transparent and companies that have certificates are more
open to showing records of their contribution to local development. For example,
CEB (or Thanry Gabon), which is one of the companies managing a certified forest
concession, has involved WWF and a social scientist of the Omar Bongo University
yale school of forestry & environmental studies