Natural Resources and Violent Conflict - WaterWiki.net

112 crossin, hayman, and taylorCertification procedures also require an effective means of issuingand verifying the licenses or certificates, which implies separate systemsfor administration and monitoring. Such systems require significantinvestment in new monitoring capacity, as the commodity chainprovided by articles like shipping waybills lacks adequate information.Such procedures may involve the use of tagging, bar coding, andtransponder technologies and registers of approved traders and processingfacilities. Currently, there are no generic “legality” certificationtools for most CTRs, although some chain-of-custody standards suchas an ISO 9000 mark exist. Thus, when Swedish flat-packed furnituregiant IKEA wanted to make sure that all its timber was legally sourced,it had to develop its own system.Such methods may imply significant reform of legal and administrativearrangements in the producer countries, possibly encouragedby donor pressure. Often matters relating to export controls are theresponsibility of finance or trade ministries, whereas the monitoring ofresource extraction falls under ministries of the environment or naturalresources.Consumers, retailers, and importers of the products need to beeducated to look for and demand the license or certificate and to refuseproducts without certification. Central and local government procurementprograms can also play an important role in leading these marketsand rewarding compliance.The Kimberley process has perhaps the most advanced regime inthis regard. Its core provision for tracking rough diamonds is thatindividual shipments must be sealed in tamper-proof containers accompaniedby an official certificate of origin. Certificates are forgeryresistantdocuments that identify a shipment of rough diamonds asbeing in compliance with the requirements of the certification scheme.Nevertheless, certain activities, described as “high risk” by diamondindustry experts, such as the flow of diamonds from the mine to thefirst export point, are subject to recommended controls. Similarly, thescheme “encourages” participants to ensure that mining companiesmaintain effective security standards so that conflict diamonds do notcontaminate legitimate production and “recommends” that a participantestablish a license or registration scheme for all diamond buyers,sellers, exporters, agents, and courier companies. Figure 4.2 illustrateshow these elements and considerations may be integrated into aneffective certification-based CTR.Both the timber and fisheries sectors lack systems that focus on thelegality of material alone, but both sectors have market-driven labelingschemes, such as those of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)and the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), identifying sustainability