Since the early 1990s, the Forest Stewardship Council certification has said it strives to certify forest operations that are environmentally appropriate, economically viable and socially beneficial. The Center for International Forestry Research wanted to examine that last goal.
Since the early 1990s, the Forest Stewardship Council certification has said it strives to certify forest operations that are environmentally appropriate, economically viable and socially beneficial. The Center for International Forestry Research wanted to examine that last goal.
In a peer-reviewed paper, CIFOR asked if FSC certifications create positive "relationships between logging companies and local populations and contribute significantly to local development"?
The short answer: Yes.
In the areas studied, the presence of a certified forest management unit almost always coincided with better working and living conditions. Water supplies and medical services were guaranteed for workers and their families living in company accommodations near the sites.
Certified FMUs provided ways for the local population to communicate with the logging companies on a regular basis, and mechanisms existed to compensate the rural population if harvesting operations caused them loss.
They looked at nine certified and nine non-certified forest management units, three in each category in Cameroon, Gabon and the Republic of the Congo (with 5.3 million hectare the Congo basin contains the largest area of certified natural tropical forest in the world), and found large discrepancies.
Health and life insurance was provided to 100 percent of staff at certified FMUs, but only 25 percent of staff at non-certified FMUs. Local medical facilities existed at 100 percent of certified FMUs, 38 percent at non-certified. Only a quarter of non-certified FMUs had ways to provide compensation to rural populations for damage, compared with 100 percent of certified FMUs.
Considering these certified FMUs are competing against neighbors who sell in the same markets with lower investments, the study's authors write, "the evidence presented indicates that certification in the Congo basin has been able to push companies toward remarkable social progress."