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

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forest certification in developing and transitioning countries
The final component of the LEI system is the use of the Analytic Hierarchy Process
(AHP) for decision-making. AHP is used by Expert Panel 2 to weight the LEI criteria
and indicators gathered by assessors in the field according to local social, ecological
and economic conditions. The result of a LEI certification assessment is a grade on
the certificate. The highest grade is gold, which means that the company has achieved
sustainable forest management. Lower passing grades (silver and bronze) are given to
concessions that are weak in one of the dimensions of sustainable forest management.
Weaknesses in two dimensions, however, mean that the concession fails to be
certified.
Standards
Certification was designed to overcome, at the level of the management unit, the
numerous forest management, social and environmental problems outlined earlier.
To do this, LEI has developed several certification mechanisms and procedures for
natural forest certification including a certification standard (SNI 5000 series), certification
procedures (LEI 99 series), and a performance evaluation standard (LEI-01
and LEI-02). Standards for forest plantations are also completed. A community-based
forest certification standard is under field-testing. The standard for natural forest
management is the longest established, and therefore much of the focus of this section
refers to this standard. In addition, the natural forest certification standard
became the basis of later systems.
Certification standards are determined according to the certification activities. LEI
5000 Standards are based on a SFM system framework. Criteria, indicators and verifiers
are discussed in more detail in LEI-01 standards, while the FMU performance
values are determined using the LEI-02 document. The matrix in Table 5 shows how
the management and production dimensions are combined and that each indicator
represents a combination of dimensions. Table 6 elaborates on LEI classifications.
Table 5
Matrix showing the management and production dimensions of LEI
Management Dimension
Production Dimension (Principles)
(Strategies for Achieving Production Environment Social
Results) Sustainability Sustainability Sustainability
1. Area Management (Compulsory
Requirements)—necessary conditions INDICATOR INDICATOR INDICATOR
2. Forest Management
2.1 Production
2.2 Environmental INDICATOR INDICATOR INDICATOR
2.3 Social
(Core activities)
3. Organizational Management
(Desirable)—sufficient conditions INDICATOR INDICATOR INDICATOR
Source: LEI 5000 Standards
yale school of forestry & environmental studies