Forest Certification Standards Being Discussed

As Dr. Henry Gholz and others summarized at a recent seminar at the University of Florida, forest certification is a good example of a forest management issue that originated in the tropics and has become a hot debate in this country within a relatively short time. Opinions abound on the certification of forest management practices.

The original intent of certification in developing countries was to encourage a sustainable forest products industry where it had not existed before. What does this mean? The 1992 international Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro defined sustainable forestry as:

"managing our forests to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs by practicing a land stewardship ethic which integrates the growing, nurturing, and harvesting of trees for useful products with the conservation of soil, air and water quality, wildlife and fishhabitat, and aesthetics."

These objectives should look familiar because they are very similar to the goals of the Forest Stewardship program.

The certification process would guarantee to the consumer that all practices used in growing and processing certified wood products were sustainable from the silvicultural operations of the forest landowner to the final manufacturer, and all the processes in between. Needless-to-say this has the potential of being a very complicated process. Still in the early stages of development, there are many unanswered questions, especially in developed countries, to consider: Who does it? Why should I do it? What are the practical aspects? Will it be a duplication or enhancement of current programs? How will it be viewed by the consumer? and How do you come up with a scheme that accommodates the range of different forest landowners and range of forest products?

The Tropical Forest Management Trust, headquartered in Gainesville, recently teamed up with Tall Timbers Research in Tallahassee, to coordinate the process of developing forest certification standards for the Southeast. The contact organization for the program will be the Trust coordinated by Pamela Gore In addition, Steve Lindemann is the liaison at Tall Timbers.

Over the next 18 months, the organization will be making forestry contacts in the region, distributing information about issues related to the process of forest certification, establishing a database of stakeholders, working with forest professionals to discuss relevant standards and holding public discussion meetings.

To find out more about the project, please contact: