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Can Legality Verification Rescue Global Forest Governance? Analyzing the Potential of Public and Private Policy Intersection to Ameliorate Forest Challenges in Southeast Asia
... In Indonesia, as elsewhere, natural forests allocated for wood production are also susceptible to illegal logging (Tacconi 2007, Tsujino et al. 2016, forest encroachment and conversion (Abood et al. 2015, Hoare 2015, and social conflicts (Duncan 2007, Meijaard et al. 2013. The Indonesian Government has sought to address these issues with a series of policy instruments: log export bans in 1985 (Tachibana 2000) and 2001 (Resosudarmo and Yusuf 2006); mandatory sustainable production forest management certification ( SVLK was developed as part of a Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) under the European Union Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (EU-FLEGT) Action Plan (Obidzinski and Kusters 2015), which aimed to strengthen domestic forest governance, in part by promoting policy learning (Cashore and Stone 2012). SVLK incorporated the existing PHPL certification of sustainable forest management, as well as addressing the legality of wood in Indonesian market chains (Maryudi 2016). ...
... SVLK incorporated the existing PHPL certification of sustainable forest management, as well as addressing the legality of wood in Indonesian market chains (Maryudi 2016). SVLK is mandatory for all actors in wood value chains (MoEF 2016a); it requires third party auditing against specified standards, and so are classified as a hybrid forest governance instrument (Cashore and Stone 2012). ...
... A number of studies have addressed the design and implementation of SVLK (Maryudi 2016), its implications for domestic forest governance and adverse impacts on small-scale actors (Obidzinski et al. 2014, Setyowati andMcDermott 2017). Some studies (Savilaakso et al. 2017, Wibowo and Giessen 2018, Wibowo et al. 2019 have compared SVLK with voluntary measures, in the context of Cashore and Stone's (2012) characterisation of legality verification as "certification light", but these have not explored the application of SVLK along wood value chains. This study responds to this gap by investigating actors' compliance with SVLK in natural forest-based value chains and comparing the outcomes of this mandatory instrument with those of voluntary forest certification. ...
Indonesian natural forest concessions and value chains are governed by a mandatory Timber Legality Verification System (SVLK), which includes assessment of Sustainable Production Forest Management (PHPL). Concessionaires and processors may also pursue voluntary forest certification. This study explores actors' compliance with these instruments along wood product value chains originating primarily from natural forests. Empirical results demonstrate that SVLK fostered legality compliance in domestic as well as export value chains, but still allows some possible loopholes. It is easier for actors to comply with SVLK than with Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification, because SVLK has less stringent requirements, and uses an assessment system that allows poor field performance and does not foster continuous improvement of practices. These results identify weaknesses in the architecture and implementation of the regulatory instruments, and suggest measures to strengthen Indonesia's sustainable forest management and timber legality systems.
... At the same time, it is the largest timber operator on the Croatian market, acting as an organizer of timber auctions. This multiplicity of roles might lead to some conflict of interest [82], undermining the credibility of documentation as well as actual legality of timber [83]. Indeed, a recent report on massive deforestation in Croatia accuses Hrvatske šume, as well as administrative bodies for forestry and nature protection, of committing deforestation on large areas all over Croatia, including within Natura 2000 sites. ...
... Transparency, availability and accessibility of information are of critical importance for obtaining the necessary information on timber legality [83]. Yet, transparency of information is still low in some countries. ...
... To successfully implement EUTR, a number of checks, as well as stricter fines, will be needed. Those policies [83] will likely not be enough to ensure an appropriate promotion of legality. It seems that for ensuring a better governance of the forest sector effective mix of policy tools (including voluntary ones, for instance, forest certification) is needed. ...
Eight years after the European Union Timber Regulation (EUTR) came into force, its effectiveness is still unsatisfactory due to deficient and uneven implementation among member states. In addition, some Western Balkan countries have poor legality monitoring systems, increasing the risk of trade in illegally harvested timber. Regardless of this, no recent work has analyzed the adaptation of national forest policies to the EUTR obligations. Our study aims to contribute to the understanding of EUTR implementation by analyzing the adaptation of policies of the Western Balkan countries (Slovenia, Croatia, and Serbia) to the EUTR. Qualitative content analysis was conducted on 22 policy documents from Slovenia, Croatia, and Serbia. Documents were coded using coding categories derived from EUTR. Our results point out that none of the analyzed countries have a policy to directly address illegal logging or prevention of illegal activities. As EU members, Slovenia and Croatia has implemented EUTR through laws. The Slovenian Forest Act addresses all EUTR obligations, while Croatian Law on EUTR Implementation does not directly address the obligation of legality. This obligation is addressed by the Law on Forests. As Serbia is not an EU member, it did not implement EUTR. Nevertheless, Serbian Law on Forests addresses all EUTR obligations, but has some discrepancies regarding Traceability obligation. With ongoing discourses on Green Deal policies and the increasing focus on “deforestation-free” commodities, stricter implementation might be expected of EUTR at EU level. Most countries would probably have to build capacities for EUTR implementation and become more transparent and responsible concerning information availability. To successfully implement EUTR, an increased number of checks as well as stricter fines will be needed.
... This narrow problem focus has led to emerging critique of the new "timber legality regime" (Bartley, 2014). Some analyses caution of possible adverse effects on local forest governance due to "disproportionate burdens on smallholders" or see even incentives for "governments to weaken their laws" (Bartley, 2014; see also Cashore and Stone, 2012). They, hence, criticise existing interventions as ineffective in mitigating global deforestation. ...
... For the first time, the laws used a mandatory approach to regulate illegal logging, thus they have been portrayed as a shift from voluntary to mandatory measures on a global scale . This shift has been viewed by some authors as necessary and beneficial for global forest stewardship (Bartley, 2014;Cashore and Stone, 2012;Overdevest and Zeitlin, 2014). However, concerns have been raised about the potential negative effects on small-scale producers and that the focus on "legality" promotes a much narrower perspective on global forest management and, thus, draws attention away from the more comprehensive concept of sustainability (Bartley, 2014;. ...
... illegal timber). While the statutes leave discretion to suppliers and purchasers about just how to ensure they are not importing illegal timber, a consensus is emerging that one beneficial way to meet these requirements is to track legally-harvested products along global supply chains (Cashore and Stone, 2012). ...
... 62 Existing market and land-policy distortions underprice the use of natural resources, making business-as-usual production systems more competitive in the short term. 63 Innovations to tackle forest loss and degradation are generally based on policy instruments (e.g., certification, payment for ecosystem service schemes, and offset requirements [64][65][66] ) that are designed to internalize environmental costs and are, hence, more expensive to implement than the alternatives. For example, forest-management certification was promoted as a market-based solution to the failure of public policies to protect forest resources. ...
... For example, forest-management certification was promoted as a market-based solution to the failure of public policies to protect forest resources. 64,67 However, its adoption has been limited, especially by forest communities, by the costs involved. Where adopted, it has promoted and shaped sustainability transition processes by introducing new concepts in national policy arenas. ...
Forests across the world stand at a crossroads where climate and land-use changes are shaping their future. Despite demonstrations of political will and global efforts, forest loss, fragmentation, and degradation continue unabated. No clear evidence exists to suggest that these initiatives are working. A key reason for this apparent ineffectiveness could lie in the failure to recognize the agency of all stakeholders involved. Landscapes do not happen. We shape them. Forest transitions are social and behavioral before they are ecological. Decision makers need to integrate better representations of people’s agency in their mental models. A possible pathway to overcome this barrier involves eliciting mental models behind policy decisions to allow better representation of human agency, changing perspectives to better understand divergent points of view, and refining strategies through explicit theories of change. Games can help decision makers in all of these tasks.
... Such standards, which are typically established in partnership in developing countries and sponsored by international organizations such as the International Labor Organization, the World Bank and/or the European Union, can be called IO-driven partnership standards. The Better Work program and the Forest Legality Enforcement Governance and Trade Program (Cashore and Stone, 2012;Overdevest and Zeitlin, 2014), for instance, belong to this category. These standards differ from producer-country standards because of their embeddedness in IO programs, the corresponding reference they make to IO rules and treaties, and the supervisory role of governments/IOs over these partnerships. ...
... By highlighting these trends, the literature on CSR standard multiplicity has helped to shed light on interactions among CSR standards. Some studies highlight competition and its possible effect for the shape of standards in the long run (Cashore and Stone, 2012), while others emphasize complications that arise in implementing different standards in producer facilities (Fransen, 2011). In spite of these valuable insights, however, two main gaps remain in our understanding of CSR standard multiplicity, which we seek to address in the (sub) sections below. ...
Full text available at https://doi.org/10.1108/MBR-08-2019-0083
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the multiplicity of corporate social responsibility (CSR) standards, explaining its nature, dynamics and implications for multinational enterprises (MNEs) and international business (IB), especially in the context of CSR and global value chain (GVC) governance.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper leverages insights from the literature in political science, policy, regulation, governance and IB; from the own earlier work; and from an inventory of CSR standards across a range of sectors and products.
Findings
This analysis’ more nuanced approach to CSR standard multiplicity helps distinguish the different categories of standards; uncovers the existence of different types of standard multiplicity; and highlights complex trends in their evolution over time, discussing implications for the various firms targeted by, or involved in, these initiatives, and for CSR and GVC governance research.
Research limitations/implications
This paper opens many avenues for future research on CSR multiplicity and its consequences; on lead firms governing GVCs from an IB perspective; and on institutional and market complexity.
Practical implications
By providing overviews and classifications, this paper helps clarify CSR standards as “new regulators” and “instruments” for actors in business, society and government.
Originality/value
This paper contributes by filling gaps in different existing literatures concerning standard multiplicity. It also specifically adds a new perspective to the IB literature, which thus far has not fully incorporated the complexity and dynamics of CSR standard multiplicity in examining GVCs and MNE strategy and policy.
... Such standards, which are typically established in partnership in developing countries and sponsored by international organizations such as the International Labor Organization, the World Bank and/or the European Union, can be called IO-driven partnership standards. The Better Work program and the Forest Legality Enforcement Governance and Trade Program (Cashore and Stone, 2012;Overdevest and Zeitlin, 2014), for instance, belong to this category. These standards differ from producer-country standards because of their embeddedness in IO programs, the corresponding reference they make to IO rules and treaties, and the supervisory role of governments/IOs over these partnerships. ...
... By highlighting these trends, the literature on CSR standard multiplicity has helped to shed light on interactions among CSR standards. Some studies highlight competition and its possible effect for the shape of standards in the long run (Cashore and Stone, 2012), while others emphasize complications that arise in implementing different standards in producer facilities (Fransen, 2011). In spite of these valuable insights, however, two main gaps remain in our understanding of CSR standard multiplicity, which we seek to address in the (sub) sections below. ...
This article conducts a population-level analysis of transnational private governance organizations (TPGOs) that develop standards for sustainable commodity production in the Global South. Our point of departure is the observation that despite the rapid growth in the number of TPGOs active in developing countries the extant scholarship remains focused on a small set of well-studied programs. To address this imbalance, this article brings much needed empirical breadth to current debates on the proliferation, inclusivity, and distributional consequences of transnational sustainability governance. Analyzing 47 TPGOs and their operations in 12 export-oriented commodity sectors and the 10 largest developing country producers of these commodities, our explorations reveal signs of a worrying “bigger picture”. The highly unequal geographic and sectoral distribution of TPGOs, the lack of inclusion of producers in their central decision-making bodies, and the prevalence of problematic cost sharing arrangements limit the potential of this mode of governance to contribute to sustainable commodity production in developing countries.
... These power struggles often feature customary community law pitted against much more powerful nation-state laws (Randeria 2003) or national laws against more localized forms of state governance (Ribot, Agrawal and Larson 2006) or sovereign states against international (nonbinding) standards, if not law. In the case of the latter, international standards and policies may influence nation-state policies (Cashore and Stone 2012) or vice versa (Vogel 1995). ...
... The same nationstates that determine what legal and illegal timber is, however, establish and enforce policies in other sectors that perpetuate deforestation and forest degradation; examples of such policies are agricultural and livestock conversion and urban expansion (Nepstad et al. 2009;Susanti and Maryudi 2016;Kissinger, Herold, and De Sy 2012;DeFries et al. 2010). Cutler (2001) argues that Westphalian states are incapable of advancing the interests of non-state actors, the private industry, and informal structures; if FLEGT reinforces the Westphalian notions of statehood in such a situation, it could displace non-state solutions for improving forest governance (see also Cashore and Stone 2012;Putzel et al. 2015). ...
Timber legality trade restrictions and verification are a bundle of contemporary mechanisms triggered by global concerns about forest degradation and deforestation. The European Union Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade initiative is a significant effort to not only screen out illegal timber and wood products from the EU, but also support trading partner countries to improve their legality definitions and verification processes. But by using bilateral agreements (Voluntary Partnership Agreements) as a key mechanism, the EU legitimizes trade partner nation-states as the authority to decide what is legal. We engage in a theoretical debate about the complexities of the meaning of legality, and then analyze empirical data collected from interviews in Ghana, Indonesia, Vietnam and Europe with policy, civil society and industry actors to understand how different actors understand legality. We find hegemonic notions of Westphalian statehood at the core of 'global' notions of legality and often contrast with local understandings of legality. Non-state actors understand these hegemonic notions of legality as imposed upon them and part of a colonial legacy. Further, notions of legality that fail to conform with hegemonic understandings are readily framed by nation-states as immoral or criminal. We emphasize the importance of understanding these framings to elucidate the embedded assumptions about what comprises legality within assemblages of global actors.
Key words: FLEGT, timber legality, hegemony, power, globalization
... e Europe Union (E.U.) launched a Europe Union-Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (EU-FLEGT) action plan by improving good forest governance to combat illegal logging and promoting legal timber trade [1,2]. One of the essential components of FLEGT is a Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA). ...
... is measurement was expected to provide evidence that VPA has the potential to have positive or negative impacts on livelihoods and poverty levels [9,34,41]. One hypothesis of the emergence of VPA is that improving the management of forest resources will have a positive effect on socioeconomic conditions and poverty alleviation for people who depend on forest resources [1,6]. VPAs can improve welfare and reduce poverty through creating employment opportunities, ensuring the right of access to forest resources, and VPA also make equitable distribution of income to local stakeholders better and ensuring that social agreements negotiated for the benefit of affected communities [37]. ...
The Europe Union (E.U.) has agreed to grant the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) license to Indonesia as the first country in the world to receive it. FLEGT VPA (Voluntary Partnership Agreement) is a bilateral agreement between the European Union (E.U.) and wood exporting countries, to improve forest governance sector and ensure that timber and wood products imported into the E.U. are produced by the laws and regulation of partner countries. The Indonesian government has obliged to implement Article 12 relating to social safeguards. Indonesia has to periodically monitor to see the extent to which the VPA has an environmental and social impact that affect the lives and welfare of vulnerable and marginalised groups. The purpose of this study is to analyse how the effect of implementation of the Sistem Verifikasi Legalitas Kayu (SVLK) as part of VPA in the small and medium forestry industry sector. Methodology survey with focus group discussions, structured interviews, and semistructured interviews to find out the response and opinion of SME’s owner and employee addressed the effect of SVLK in East Java and Central Java, Indonesia. The theory of change (ToC) was used to consider the implications of SVLK implementation on the sustainable livelihood of small and medium enterprises (SME’s). The results of this study showed that SVLK had a more significant impact on livelihoods, as follows. First, the vulnerable and marginalised groups need to be supported by stakeholders to encourage readiness in faces of SVLK impact. Second, SVLK is susceptible to the effects and at risk of losing livelihoods for women and disabled groups in a short time. This group includes vulnerable groups of aspects of adaptability and sensitivity to the effect. Third, SME’s worker groups who do not have a labour organisation are sensitive to the impact on the workplace company. This group is classified as a group that is quite vulnerable if the effect lasts long enough and on a large scale of impact.
1. Introduction
The Europe Union (E.U.) launched a Europe Union-Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (EU-FLEGT) action plan by improving good forest governance to combat illegal logging and promoting legal timber trade [1, 2]. One of the essential components of FLEGT is a Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA). The strength of the VPA is that it can go beyond international trade to consider the development and environmental issues; and it can influence the local policies to tackle illegal logging [3, 4]. Indonesia–EU VPA framework has an agreement in 2013 and imposed the system for assurance of timber legality called as Sistem Verifikasi Legalitas Kayu (SVLK). SVLK is a mandatory policy for improving forest governance to address the problem of illegal logging [5, 6]. The E.U. agreed to provide a FLEGT license for Indonesia as the first country in the world for obtaining under the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade-Voluntary Partnership Agreement (FLEGT VPA) [7]. The national of the timber legality assurance system as SVLK products from Indonesia guarantee the E.U. level into promoting legitimate trade, and the VPA discusses improving forest governance and law enforcement [8].
The purpose of this study is to identify and verify the indicators of SVLK implementation, focusing on the expected and unexpected impacts on the livelihood of vulnerable and marginal groups (which includes smallholder forest farmers and producers, middle-man buying from micro and small enterprises, and household artisan supplier of SME’s and labour in small upstream and downstream timber industries).
The E.U. and Indonesia agreed to develop social safeguards of VPA implementation on the sustainability of livelihoods in timber-producing forests and small industries [9]. Joint Implementation Committee (JIC) mandates Indonesia to prepare an impact monitoring system (IMS) from SVLK implementation [10]. The effect of SVLK implementation is a change condition in the short, medium, and long term [11]. IMS does not monitor either the input of SVLK policies or the SVLK processes such as verification and appeal and the amount of legal timber on the market. However, IMS monitors potential expected and unexpected effects [12].
The E.U. and Indonesia made a joint commitment to monitor the social, economic, and environmental effects of the VPA [13]. Monitoring is undertaken to see whether the VPA has the desired results and informs that government policy-making reflects policy effectiveness assessments [14]. JIC established a multistakeholder technical working group to develop and test a national level VPA effect monitoring system [15].
The ratification of the two VPA documents was carried out in April 2014, and one of the articles approved for the preparation of VPA implementation was Article 12 [8, 9]. Indonesia and the E.U. will make ongoing efforts to improve the effectiveness of the implementation of SVLK, including the improvements of independent monitoring functions, law enforcement, supply chain control, disclosure of relevant data and information, and the effectiveness of VPA implementation by small and medium enterprises. To ensure ongoing legal reform and forestry governance processes, VPA also allows a review of the legality definition based on input from stakeholders [16].
The IMS agreed upon in the VPA process is a management mechanism to maintain the relevance of the SVLK in changing the dynamics of the social situation and political management of forest resources. IMS provides periodic information about the effect of SVLK as feedback for the government regarding decision-making materials to increase positive outcomes and prevent/anticipate the adverse effects of SVLK [17]. IMS will explore the experience of implementing SVLK policies from stakeholders in national and regional discussion, consultation forums, and in-depth interviews with key speakers representing the region, implementers of SVLK implementation, academics, and regulators [18].
The IMS combines several methodologies such as literature reviews of various SVLK policy rules, SVLK implementation reports, impact monitoring, and change theory [7]. The results are processed and developed in stakeholder analysis, beneficiary vulnerability analysis, and flowchart. The standard matrix is used for monitoring the effect of SVLK implementation to explain the context that will affect the development of an impact monitoring system [9, 18]. Identification of the impacts of SVLK implementation at various levels of the effect recipients so that all elements become a monitoring system for the design effect of SVLK. The effect monitoring was performed by using standards or a series of effect monitoring criteria and indicators developed through a multistakeholder process. The monitored implications cover five main aspects: (a) institutional and governance effectiveness, (b) eradication of illegal logging, (c) forest conditions, (d) economic development, and (e) livelihoods [9, 14].
FLEGT-VPA expected to encourage the playing field of small and medium enterprises to participate and get benefits from VPA implementation [19]. Previous studies in Indonesia (Maryudi and Meyers, 2018), in Ghana (Tegegne, 2014), and Vietnam (Noi, 2014) revealed that many small and medium enterprises and marginalised and vulnerable groups might be affected by VPA. The previous studies indicated that the FLEGT-VPA was unpredicted. Therefore, in the FLEGT-VPA, the need to build an IMS of social safeguards against vulnerable and marginalised groups were emphasized [20].
2. Materials and Methods
Survey with focus group discussions (FGD), structured interviews, and semistructured interviews was used to find out the responses and opinions of SME’s owner and employee who addressed the effect of VPA. Theory of change (ToC) was also used to find out the effect of the VPA and the influence of vulnerable. ToC analysis was carried out by Rutt et al. [21] identifying the underlying indicators of causation related to SVLK to determine the impact of SVLK on livelihood and vulnerable. Because the ToC does not specify the assumptions about how the SVLK impacts, directly (survey, FGD, and interview) or indirectly (desk study report and statistical data analysis) methods as the IMS indicators were used to gather information on the ground.
Several data were collected to seek the effect of VPA including changes outcome in livelihoods before and after SVLK of labour welfare, protection of labour, a skill of employment, and economic conditions of work and to seek the influence for vulnerable including changes outcome of SME’s perception, policies and regulations, business practices, and issue visibility. Table 1 shows the indicator of the effect of VPA and influence for vulnerable by ToC.
Effect of VPA
Outcome
Influence for vulnerable
Outcome
Changes in welfare
The labour’s welfare and implementation of career paths.
Changes in SME’s perceptions
The SVLK was positive for livelihoods.
Changes in protection
Protection of labour’s health, safety, and rights.
Changes in policies and regulation
Local government adopt the SVLK that support livelihood priorities.
Changes in skills
Labour appointed to participate in capacity building training.
Changes in business practice
(i) It increased export market opportunity.
(ii) Increased domestic market needs for products.
Changes in economic condition
Workforce engagement of local labour (men, women, and vulnerable groups).
Changes in issue visibility
Public raises SVLK and livelihoods issue to the higher priority.
... The study draws on a number of theoretical frameworks. PHPL and SVLK, which combines command-and-control regulation and third-party verification, is a form of hybrid forest governance (Cashore and Stone, 2012). The concept of smart regulation reviewed by Gunningham and Sinclair (2017) similarly emphasises the use of multiple rather than single policy instruments, the involvement of state and non-state actors, and the appropriate use of enforcement strategies to ensure the compliance of regulated actors. ...
... The generally high levels of compliance with PHPL and SVLK that we observed are consistent with expectation, because compliance is mandatory (Parker and Nielsen, 2017), because most actors are large-scale and so "easy to target" (Gunningham and Sinclair, 2002: 95), and because legality compliance requirements are less complicated than those for voluntary forest certification (Wibowo et al., 2019). As a form of hybrid governance (sensu Cashore and Stone, 2012), PHPL certification and SVLK verification are intended to capitalise on the strengths and avoid the weaknesses of each of public and private regulation, in part by drawing on complementary combinations of instrument types (Gunningham and Sinclair, 2017). PHPL and SVLK include a mix of command-and-control, third-party oversight, and self-regulatory instruments. ...
Indonesia’s internationally- and domestically-significant pulp and paper industries source their feedstock from tree plantations. A suite of regulatory (Indonesian Sustainable Production Forest Management Certification and Timber Legality Verification) and market instruments (forest certification) have been introduced to promote sustainability and legality of production from tree plantations, and some producers have also adopted other voluntary sustainability measures. This study investigates sustainability and legality compliance by actors in an Indonesian pulp and paper value chain as a case study of environmental innovation. Results are based on primary fieldwork along segments of the value chain, and analysis of audit reports and other publicly-available information. The value chain sources fibrewood from tree plantation concessions and pallet wood from a variety of suppliers. Audit reports suggest high levels of compliance with sustainability and legality requirements, but our research suggests that these reports might not reflect some area of poor performance and non-compliance. We identify weaknesses in the design of regulatory systems, and in auditing and monitoring processes, as the principal reasons for these deficiencies. Drawing on relevant theory and on practice elsewhere, we suggest that compliance and sustainability can be improved by addressing key areas of regulatory silence, by shifting auditing to be more performance-than paper-based, by strengthening independent monitoring from civil society, by increasing the frequency of witness auditing from the National Accreditation Board, and by fostering synergies between regulatory instruments and voluntary forest certification. These changes would improve the effectiveness of regulatory and voluntary instruments to promote cleaner production in Indonesian pulp and paper value chains.
... Forest government is characterised by concessionary systems with erratic or poor effective forest controls in place; corruption in the value and market chain; lack of resources for forest control given the vast areas of forests. The failure of forest government to achieve sustainable forest management has led to calls for multi-stakeholder forest governance processes beyond government (Cashore and Stone, 2012). ...
... With the emergence of these innovative governance systems, there have been calls for a deeper understanding and conceptualisation of the formal and informal factors that affect 'real' forest governance (Cashore, 2002;Agrawal et al., 2008;Humphreys, 2012). While the role played by private sector in improving sustainable forest management through certification schemes has been widely researched (Cashore and Stone, 2012;Auld et al., 2008;Nasi et al., 2012), there is much less rigorous conceptual works of the role of civil society organisations (CSOs) in addressing the core issues of forest governance in the tropics. This lack of knowledge is particularly relevant for some critical issues like illegal logging and related trade in the Congo Basin. ...
The consequence of state controlled forestry in Cameroon has been the overexploitation of forest resources often in conflict with local forest dependent communities and state conservation objectives. The failure of state controlled forestry to achieve sustainable forest management has led to the emergence of new network like arrangements amongst which is independent forest monitoring (IFM) by civil society. The aim of this paper is to scrutinize the factors which affect the effectiveness of IFM governance network in Cameroon. Our research focused on a case study of Cameroon, employing a governance network perspective. The main findings are that national civil society in Cameroon is playing a significant role in improving transparency in the forest sector and holding decision makers to account. The paper finds a shift from technical areas of forest monitoring to the monitoring of social obligations and the respect of community rights by private companies. An analysis of actors highlights a strong network of national NGOs with self-defined goals and strategies engaged in very fluid relationships with law enforcement agencies beyond traditional ministries of forests and wildlife characterised by a spectrum ranging from complementarity, substitution and rivalry. The lack of sustainable funding and weak capabilities of national NGOs to navigate these fluid relationships emerges as core constraints for network effectiveness. Accordingly, recommendations for effectiveness entail strategies for sustainable funding, capacity strengthening and network coordination to address current weaknesses but also to build trust and credibility of the governance network.
... These initiatives included a series of regional Ministerial Conferences in Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe, which created political space for and consensus on the need to address the problems of illegal logging (Eba'a Atyi, 2018). While FLEG initiatives have been one of the most important actions in these regions, efforts to strengthen timber legality compliance and trade controls along the global supply chain remain limited (Cashore and Stone, 2012). The FLEG initiative in Africa, for example, has been weakened while the quantity of illegally harvested timber is still growing rapidly in national and intra-African markets (Eba'a Atyi, 2018). ...
Illegal logging has received international attention in recent years. For instance, the aim of the European Union Action Plan on Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade Action Plan (FLEGT) and its Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) is to combat illegal logging and foster good governance and trade in legal wood products. Using a theoretically framework derived from literature on institutional capacity for “good forest governance,” we conducted a comparative analysis of the potential and realized capacities of VPA processes for advancing principles of good forest governance and the implementation of the Timber Legality Assurance System (TLAS) in Cameroon, the Central African Republic (CAR), Ghana, Liberia, and the Republic of Congo (Congo) as well as the challenges that hinder the implementation of VPAs. Based on information gathered from multiple sources, we found that VPA processes do have potential capacities for advancing information transparency, multi-stakeholder participation, and TLAS. Important progress is, however, constrained by complex political and technical issues. Unlike in Ghana, Liberia, and Congo, where progress and realized capacities are more pronounced, the realized capacities of VPAs in Cameroon and the CAR are limited. While there are prospects for making progress in these latter countries, such challenges as weak and inconsistent legal frameworks, insufficient financial resources, and long-term conflicts have slowed down the implementation of VPAs. Modest investment in capacity building and enhanced political will could have a significant effect on the realized capacities.
... Both trade options carry high risk of encouraging further illegal timber sourcing and laundering. One mechanism that has been proved to work-albeit with mixed results-is certification (e.g., Cashore & Stone, 2012). As proposed by Ballet, Lopez, and Rahaga (2010), the precious wood sector could engage in a certification scheme, which would facilitate monitoring and transparency. ...
To prevent the illegal trade in wild species, stock management is critical given stocks function as a buffer to supply chains during lean periods or as a mechanism for market speculation. The Madagascar government with backing by the World Bank recently promoted the sale of confiscated rosewood to reach a zero‐stocks situation. To better assess options, we contrast the risks and rewards of four stock management options. Stock destruction broadcasts a potent conservation message, but provides little economic benefit. National trade can be beneficial to local socioeconomic development goals, but can lead to laundering of illegal products. International trade is fraught with risks related to illegal trade and is perceived to achieve the least related to forest and socioeconomic indicators. Lastly, banking stocks act to postpone decisions. No management option ensures a sustainable solution, but critical analyses allow better insight to the strengths and weaknesses of the available approaches.
... For example, forest management certification was promoted as a market-based solution to the failure of public policies to protect forest resources. 50,53 Especially forest communities, due to the costs involved, however, have limited its adoption. Where adopted, it has promoted and shaped sustainability transition processes by introducing new concepts in national policy arenas 54,55 but simply scaling the current certification models will not lead to a regime shift. ...
Forests across the world stand at the crossroad with climate and land use changes shaping their future. Despite the demonstration of political will and global efforts, forest loss, fragmentation and land degradation continue unabated. No clear evidence exists that these initiatives are working. Why are policies designed to halt deforestation and increase restoration of forest landscapes failing? A key reason for this apparent ineffectiveness lies in the failure to recognize the agency of the stakeholders involved and the adaptive capacities of the systems we seek to steer. Landscapes do not happen. We make them. They are the result of the sum of individual actions and decisions made by all stakeholders, and the interactions between these and biophysical processes. Likewise, forest transitions are not ecological, but social and behavioral. They are a product of the way humans manage ecosystems. Decision-makers need to integrate better representations of people's agency in their mental models. We suggest possible solution pathways to overcome this key current barrier. These involve eliciting mental models behind policy decision, changing perspectives to better understand divergent points of view and refining strategies through explicit theories of change. Games designed to represent the constraints and opportunities that exist in the landscapes can help decision makers in these tasks.
... If we consider the full range of actors that have subscribed to different versions of the principle, it should be clear that these things are generally being turned into commodities or taken to new markets. What this means is that a demonstration or proof of FPIC is one element of their market value, even if that is only because the 'stakeholders' with an interest in their consumption care about human rights or environmental justice [51][52][53][54][55][56]. ...
Social and environmental safeguards are now commonplace in policies and procedures that apply to certain kinds of foreign investment in developing countries. Prominent amongst these is the principle of free, prior and informed consent (FPIC), which is commonly tied to policies and procedures relating to investments that have an impact on ‘indigenous peoples’. This paper treats international safeguards as a possible manifestation of what Karl Polanyi called the ‘double movement’ in the operation of a capitalist market economy. Our concern here is with the way that the FPIC principle has been applied in struggles over the alienation of land and associated natural resources claimed by indigenous peoples or customary landowners in three developing countries—Cambodia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. Case studies of recent land struggles in these countries are used to illustrate the existence of a spectrum in which the application of the FPIC principle may contribute more or less to the defence of customary rights. On one hand, it may be little more than a kind of ‘performance’ that simply adds some extra value to a newly created commodity. On the other hand, it may sometimes enable local or indigenous communities and their allies in ‘civil society’ to mount an effective defence of their rights in opposition to the processes of alienation or commodification. The paper finds that all three countries have political regimes and national policy frameworks that are themselves resistant to the imposition of social and environmental safeguards by foreign investors or international financial institutions. However, they differ widely in the extent to which they make institutional space for the FPIC principle to become the site of a genuine double movement of the kind that Polanyi envisaged.
... So far forest certification and timber legality systems have been analyzed as either competitive or complementary (Cashore and Stone, 2012) mechanisms between private and public actors. However, "the public/private distinction (…) comprises, not a single paired opposition, but a complex family of them, neither mutually reducible nor wholly unrelated" (Weintraub, 1997, 2). ...
Illegal logging and trade are one of the most important issues in world politics, strongly connected with deforestation and forest degradation, especially in developing countries with tropical forests. As a result, many different international policies designed to tackle these issues have been developed over the years, led both by state and non-state actors. Although the role of state actors in certification mechanisms has been previously analyzed, the response of non-state forest certification actors to potentially competitive systems of legality has not yet been analyzed. The case of Argentina presented in this paper shows how a coalition between international actors such as the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and land owners, with great power in the country, gathered through forestry associations have managed to create a timber legality verification mechanism, even with financing from the national state. In this case, the state gives up its regulatory power and the possibility of increasing its institutional capacities vis-à-vis private actors. Addressing the response of private certification actors to legality mechanisms will allow for important and in-depths insights into the relationship between state and non-state actors and potential future joint mechanisms designed to address illegal logging and deforestation.
... In summary, the aligned thread of rhetorical redescription amongst the actor groups, as presented in this section's quotes, suggests that differing actor groups may strategically adhere to depoliticized rhetoric and technical processes under a common 'positive' project goal (i.e., the logic of equivalence) if they perceive that doing so will advance their political demands. These findings are in alignment with previous studies (Cashore & Stone, 2012;Sotirov et al., 2017) that highlighted how a strategic coalition of "bootleggers" (the private sector) and "Baptists" (NGOs) might develop in support of legality verification if it serves their self-interest. ...
The reduction of illegal logging and related trade has been on the international policy agenda since the 1990s. The EU's Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade initiative (EU-FLEGT) seeks to address illegal logging through a scheme that rests on multistakeholder negotiations. However, past initiatives seeking to reform forest governance in the global South have reproduced the uneven outcomes of colonial forest governance by further empowering national government authorities. In the case of Thailand, FLEGT negotiations between November 2013 and April 2021 succeeded in opening a political space for civil society to engage with government actors. However, FLEGT negotiations during this period failed to address the uneven outcomes of forest governance, benefiting elites at the expense of the rural poor due to an 'anti-politics effect. The FLEGT multistakeholder negotiations did not consider the uneven historical relations to land and resource rights nor the intrinsic power dynamics of different actor groups. As such, dominant actors from the government and private sector succeeded in structuring the terrain of the FLEGT negotiations to determine which civil society demands for reforms to tenure and resource rights they would concede, and which they would not.
... This combines an implicit form for CSR with explicit content. Other examples of regulation for what had been explicit CSR issues include U.K., French, and Dutch requirements for due diligence in international supply chains to avert child labor and slavery; the adoption by the Norwegian government of voluntary ethical trading codes for public purchasing; the Indian government's CSR tax (Mitra & Chatterjee, 2019); the Chinese government's numerous CSR regulations, particularly on the export sector (Hofman & Moon with Wu, 2017); and, somewhat more indirectly, the use of legality verification to effectively make voluntary agreements binding (e.g., in forestry governance; Cashore & Stone, 2012). ...
... One important strategy used to resist RSPO efforts to bolster its governing authority has involved discursive efforts to portray transnational regulatory bodies as threats to both substantive and procedural dimensions of national sovereignty (Cashore and Stone, 2012). According to one producer representative: "the definition of sustainability must be defined from our own perspective … as a sovereign country with our own policy … [and] in accordance with our own law". ...
The social and environmental impact of commodity production in the global south is now governed by an array of global market-driven standard-setting schemes, which interact with state-centred legal and administrative governance ‘on the ground’ in producing countries. Drawing on a case study of contested regulatory governance in the Indonesian palm oil sector, this paper investigates the effects of interactions between (northern) market-based and (southern) state-centred regulatory authorities. Analysis shows that it is not the collaborative or conflictual character of governance interactions that matters most in shaping regulatory capacity, but rather how such interactions influence the motivations, capacities and legitimacy claims of competing regulatory coalitions within commodity producing jurisdictions. While conflictual pathways of regulatory empowerment can sometimes be productive, their effects on destabilizing power relations between elite and marginalised actors in producing countries render them distinctively vulnerable to legitimacy challenges from incumbent powerholders. This generates dilemmas for global regulators, whose efforts to influence change through strategies of empowering southern pro-regulatory coalitions are subject to challenge from competing coalitions of southern actors.
... As the entire procedure of EUTR enforcement is mainly based on traceability verification following a "paper-based" approach aimed to assess risks and introduce mitigating measures (UNEP-WCMC, 2020), operators are encouraged to produce adequate documentation as proof of legally sourced timber (Cashore and Stone, 2012). However, traceability represents an interesting application scenario for digital technologies (Rolandi et al., 2021), since emerging digital solutions could make the massive exchange of data and information more effective and efficient, lowering policy-related transaction and costs associated with EUTR implementation. ...
Illegal logging is a global problem associated with deforestation, climate change, and biodiversity loss with significant negative economic, environmental, and social impacts. In response to this phenomenon, European Union has enacted the European Timber Regulation (EUTR) that imposes economic operators to exercise due diligence thanks to traceability verifications. These are mainly based on a “paper-based” approach, with implementation issues as a consequence.
Italy is a interesting case study, since it is the first importer of wood-energy biomass worldwide, where tons of fuelwood without clear traceability are imported every year, and EUTR enforcement still lags behind. Here, a Living Lab involving stakeholders and key informants, carried out a participatory and open assessment of the impact of digital technologies on EUTR enforcement and traceability in the national wood-energy sector.
Results reveals that, even if digitalisation is at the first stage, it is far from being only a technological phenomenon since it is already able to impact on different aspects (social, economic, territorial, institutional) related to the EUTR application.
Policymakers are therefore recommended to rely on holistic evaluations and approaches that recognise such a complexity, in order to foster a creation of a viable digital ecosystem in favour of EUTR implementation and traceability in the wood-energy sector.
... illegal timber). While the statutes leave discretion to suppliers and purchasers about just how to ensure they are not importing illegal timber, a consensus is emerging that one beneficial way to meet these requirements is to track legally-harvested products along global supply chains (Cashore and Stone, 2012). ...
... After the Suharto era, Indonesia local sovereignty presented district governments immense role in the management of natural resources, aggravate forest loss Cashore, et al. [6]. ...
... The exceptionally high abundance of various international regimes addressing forests in multiple ways and the resulting fragmentation of the regime complex are due to the multiple interests of actors from several sectors as well as particular interests of states from the global North and South on the sovereignty over forest resources and forests as resources [6,13]. In this vein, regional regimes which consider forest issues directly or indirectly have drawn valuable attention to political and academic points of view in recent years [3,[14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. Additionally, regional regimes with members from the same ecological contexts are more likely to develop a joint conception of what is perceived as a problem to be tackled. ...
Forests are governed by a combination of sub-national and national as well as global and regional regimes. Comparing the institutional variation of regional regimes, including their degrees of formalization, is gaining attention of studies on regionalism in International Relations. This study attempts to analyse the ways in which the selected cases of the forest-related Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and forest-focused Montréal Process (MP) regional regimes may have synergetic overlaps or disparity in their institutional design and forest policy development. For this, we combined IR’s ‘rational institutional design’ theory and a policy analysis approach. Using a qualitative data approach, we analyzed key structure-related historical regime documents (e.g., charters) issued since the inception of both regimes, and their latest forest policy initiatives for the periods 2016–2025 (Strategic Plan of Action for ASEAN Cooperation on Forestry) and 2009–2015 (Conceptual Framework for the Montréal Process Strategic Action Plan) with all relevant policy documents since the adoption of current policies. Based on that, we pose the empirical questions of how both regimes illustrate governance structure (i.e., institutional design), and on the other hand how to explain regime forest policies coherently and consistently in terms of their high versus low degree of formality. The results show that institutional design is highly explanatory based on treaty and non-treaty regime formation as well as forest-related/focused regime formation with the synergistic sustainable forest management (SFM) issue that embraces deforestation and forest degradation, biodiversity, timber certification, and greenhouse gas emission. Additionally, the results suggest that the policy goals adopted by both regimes are coherent and consistent based on the full set of policy elements. Concerning the remedy for fragmented global forest governance arrangements, both regimes would be an example of practicing SFM-focused policies with the incorporation of forest-related policy elements into a larger governance assemblage dealing with issues such as biodiversity conservation or climate change mitigation.
... Crucially, businesses often have a commercial interest in the adoption of production standards that frequently underlie mitigation policies. In this respect, network governance approaches can help align the interests of different stakeholders -with non-governmental organisations proposing standards and businesses promoting them (Cashore and Stone, 2012). ...
... The legality system was finally instituted in 2009 through the Ministerial Regulation P.38/ Menhut-II/2009. The government maintains full authority over the system and mandates external parties for enforcement (Cashore and Stone, 2012). Verification is executed by a verification/certification body (VB/CB) accredited by the National Accreditation Committee (Komite Akreditasi Nasional/ KAN). ...
The Indonesian timber legality verification system was launched ten years ago with the objective of eradicating illegal logging and improving domestic forest governance. At the heart of the legality system, independent monitoring (IM) was designed as an innovation to ensure its credibility and legitimacy. This paper analyzes the challenges facing IM networks in the Indonesian timber legality assurance system and examines what lessons can be learned to further develop ideas and strategies that strengthen the effectiveness of their activities. The current experience in Indonesia suggests that IM still faces some major structural challenges to fulfill high expectations. Above all, the existence and roles of IM bodies within the legality system are not yet fully understood and are often questioned by other stakeholders. There has been some degree of skepticism about their impartiality. IM is also constrained by the limited personnel available to manage it. This situation is not aided by the complex administrative requirements to become involved in IM activities. Access to data and information is another challenge that may hinder the role IM can play in fostering good forest governance. Furthermore, IM relies heavily on donor funding to finance their project-based activities. IM bodies need to explore models and schemes for more sustainable funding for their activities.
... Both trading options carry high risk of encouraging further illegal sourcing and the laundering of timber. One mechanism that has been proved to work-albeit with mixed resultsis certification (Brown et al. 2008, Cashore and Stone 2012, Douet 2019. As proposed by Ballet et al. (2010), the precious wood sector could engage in a certification scheme, which would facilitate monitoring and transparency. ...
Stocks and stockpiles of CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of wild fauna and flora) listed wildlife, including animal and plant-derived products, remain a complex, unresolved issue. The biggest challenges lie in the prevention of further illegal sourcing of—and trade in—products originating from wild populations of threatened species. Stocks can function as a buffer during lean periods or as a mechanism used for speculation. As we outline in this paper, the current situation in Madagascar precludes non-detriment findings intended to enable sustainable use of standing rosewood populations. Backed by the World Bank, the previous Malagasy government was in the process of promoting the sale of massive stocks and stockpiles of confiscated precious woods in order to reach a zero stocks goal, this being ostensibly to halt the illegal sourcing and trafficking of rosewood. We propose and analyse four potential options for stocks management by presenting a framework linking forest management with socio-economic objectives and comparative risks. Destruction (burning) of the known stocks would send out a strong conservation message and has the strongest chance of halting further sourcing, which happens mostly in protected areas and is therefore illegal. National trade is the option in which a precious timber sector would process the woods in stocks. This option is the most beneficial for development. Opening the stocks for exportation through international trade achieves the smallest number of objectives in relation to both forests and socio-economic indicators, but comes with the highest risks in terms of curbing further illegal logging. Banking represents a fourth option, which essentially postpones any decision related to stocks management by storing the stocks for extended periods. None of the four management options is able to ensure a sustainable solution that can resolve the issues surrounding the precious timber stocks. The approaches put forward are either just ‘more good’, or ‘less good’. If a country is seriously interested in conserving its biodiversity, any government has to ensure that no other sectorial changes will counteract, or potentially undermine, the efforts to protect the environment. Stocks management will be on agenda at the upcoming COP18 in Geneva, 17–28 August 2019.
... The overarching rationale for LV approaches in general is that weeding out illegal logging will cause a reduction in supply, the corresponding increases in higher prices will, in turn, result in enhanced economic incentives for producing legal wood (Cashore and Stone, 2012). Legality verification is also similar in some respects to NSMD forest certification governance as it relies on tracking compliant products along global supply chains. ...
In the last 25 years, a range of scholars have endeavored to understand the creation of a myriad of transnational finance and market driven (FMD) governance interventions aimed at countries in the Global South who are asserted to suffer from "weak state" capacity or contain areas of "limited statehood". This class of policy tools remains the dominant approach with which to foster improved governance in domestic settings in spite of a quarter century of frustrations over the pace and scale of change. We assess the ability of a good governance norm complex to help explain the persistent support of FMD tools in which countervailing or un-anticipated impacts are viewed as the result of faulty design, rather than owing to the inherent contradictions of the complex itself. We illustrate the argument through a historical assessment of FMD tools in general, and the emergence in the last decade of "legality verification" in particular. We focus on Cambodia's forest sector to identify how policy designers might better anticipate the effects of the EU's "Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade" (FLEGT) program on the variety of countervailing problems it is charged with improving.
... Comparison of different scholars' classification of motivation to grant trust or legitimacy or the process in which this takes place, based on the principal's perceptions about the agent and its conductSuchman [178], Cashore and Stone[179], Burlea and Popa[180], Nielsen[181] Thomson and Boutilier[100], Boutlilier and Thomson[99], Gehman et al.[157] ...
While the quantity of sustainability governance initiatives and systems has increased dramatically, crises persist over whether specific governance systems can be trusted as legitimate regulators of the sustainability of economic activities. This paper focuses on conceptual tools to improve our understanding of these crises as well as the facilitating factors and barriers for sustainability governance to play a role in transitioning to profoundly more sustainable societies than those that currently exist. Bioenergy is used throughout the paper as an example to aid contextually in understanding the theoretical and abstract arguments. We first define eight premises upon which our argumentation is developed. We then define sustainability, sustainability transition, legitimacy, and trust as a premise for obtaining effectiveness in communication and minimising risks associated with misunderstanding key terms. We proceed to examine the literature on "good governance" in order to reflect upon what defines "good sustainability governance" and what makes governance systems successful in achieving their goals. We propose input, output, and throughput legitimacy as three principles constituting "good" sustainability governance and propose associated open-ended criteria as a basis for developing operational standards for assessing the quality of a sustainability governance system or complex. As sustainability governance systems must develop to remain relevant, we also suggest an adaptive governance model, where continuous re-evaluation of the sustainability governance system design supports the system in remaining "good" in conditions that are complex and dynamic. Finally, we pull from the literature in a broad range of sciences to propose a conceptual "governance research framework" that aims to facilitate an integrated understanding of how the design of sustainability governance systems influences the legitimacy and trust granted to them by relevant actors. The framework is intended to enhance the adaptive features of sustainability governance systems so as to allow the identification of the causes of existing and emerging sustainability governance crises and finding solutions to them. Knowledge generated from its use may form a basis for providing policy recommendations on how to practically solve complex legitimacy and trust crises related to sustainability governance.
Supplementary information:
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13705-021-00280-x.
... A hybrid approach, instead, offers the possibility of backing up private, voluntary certifications with state authority (cf. Cashore and Stone, 2012;Gulbrandsen, 2014). ...
The European Renewable Energy Directive (EU-RED) constitutes a ‘hybrid’ system of governance: the European Commission, a formal political authority, has set a number of sustainability criteria for the production of biofuels; however, private voluntary certification schemes are the most widely used method through which compliance is verified. In this way, EU-RED acquires the capacity to be implemented and controlled beyond European borders. This paper’s goal is to assess the potentials and limitations of this hybrid initiative of governance to enhance sustainability transnationally. To do so, we analyze the implementation of EU-RED in the case of biodiesel produced in Argentina and consumed in the European Union. In this way, we go beyond the literature’s focus on EU-RED’s institutional framework and analyses of its potential impacts, examining instead its actual implementation on the ground. We assess its effects both in terms of governance – by determining how EU-RED affects the relations of coordination among actors in the chosen global value chain – and upgrading – by determining EU-RED’s capacity to advance the social, environmental and economic conditions of biodiesel production in Argentina. The analysis shows that EU-RED’s implementation reproduces power asymmetries between European traders and Argentinean biodiesel producers, while it softens inequalities between the latter and their soy suppliers. In terms of sustainability, we identified irrelevant social and limited environmental impacts, while the most relevant form of upgrading is associated with economic factors.
... Of course, various problems that occur in the management of forest resources cannot be solved by one party or one particular actor. Differences in interests and potential conflicts must be resolved through a collaboration mechanism between actors, defined as good forest governance (Cashore and Stone, 2012). This research was conducted from January 2021 to July 2021 to capture the phenomenon of implementing social forestry policies, which is focused on the relationship between stakeholders involved in regulating their respective roles and functions and their efforts to build synergies using a descriptive qualitative approach. ...
Social forestry is a new approach to solving problems around forests, such as poverty, social inequality, and massive deforestation. Indonesia’s new social forestry policy has given local communities greater rights and legal certainty regarding their involvement in forest management. However, local communities cannot stand alone in their implementation but must collaborate with other relevant stakeholders. A qualitative descriptive approach is used in this paper to capture efforts to build synergies between stakeholders in forest management and empowerment of forest communities in Ngawi Regency and identify opportunities and challenges afterward. The results of our analysis found that the signing of the MoU can be the first step to accelerate the achievement of social forestry policy outcomes. The dichotomy between “forest” and “social” affairs is increasingly visible in the division of tasks of each stakeholder involved. There is a need for clear legal rules regarding the roles and limits of allowable intervention for Regency governments. In addition, an urgent issue that needs to be addressed is the acceleration of capacity building and the capability of local communities, which are identified as essential factors in the success of social forestry policies.
... spravované (napr. Glück et al., 2005;Agrawal et al., 2008;Hogl et al., 2008;Arts a Buizer, 2009;Böcher et al., 2009;Giessen et al., 2009;Howlett et al., 2009;Ojha et al., 2009;Rametsteiner, 2009;Werland, 2009;Arts, 2012;Cashore a Stone, 2012;Pettenella a Brotto, 2012). Kľúčovým výsledkom uvedených štúdií bolo zistenie, že v rámci lesníckej governance je moc dôležitých politických aktérov rozhodujúcim faktorom (napr. ...
... As one of the latest forest governance tools in the world, timber legality verification is a unique multi-level management model. Like forest certification, it requires third-party verification but does not depend on customer needs (Cashore and Stone 2012). The authority of legality verification is mainly derived from the demand for legal timber from governments and multinational supply chains. ...
With the rapid development of the timber industry, illegal logging of timber and its trade have become an important issue for world sustainable development. Many governmental and private sectors have taken measures to ensure the legality of wood, and wood legality verification is becoming more and more common. Chinese wood processing industries are mainly centralized in the region of Jiangsu and Zhejiang. In this paper, a questionnaire survey is used to investigate the status of legality verification of wood processing enterprises in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. The results show that applying for timber legality verification is conducive to the increase in enterprise benefits, but due to different levels of management and technology application rate, enterprises have deviations in their understanding of different legality certification systems. High certification costs and insufficient awareness of legality verification have become the main obstacles to applying for timber legality verification of wood processing enterprises in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Based on this conclusion, this paper suggests some policies to promote the legality verification of Chinese wood processing enterprises.
... This study shows that FLEGT-like approaches are perceived as the most promising type of contemporary forest governance initiatives. This is partly due to their coupling of moral and economic legitimacy Sotirov et al., 2017a), the involvement of multi-stakeholder platforms in tropical partner countries (Brusselaers and Buysse, 2018;Satyal, 2018;Tegegne et al., 2017) combined with a reliance on state sovereignty and state capacities (Cashore and Stone, 2012) and a promise of win-win solutions for state and non-state actors in the Global North and South (McDermott, 2014;Sotirov et al., 2017a;Winkel et al., 2017). Most importantly, however, may be the marriage of forests as a frequently "low politics" issue with trade as a "high politics" issue (Willetts, 2001). ...
Deforestation and forest degradation remain huge global environmental challenges. Over the last decades, various forest governance initiatives and institutions have evolved in global response to interlinked topics such as climate change mitigation, biodiversity conservation, indigenous rights, and trade impacts – accompanied by various levels of academic attention. Using a Delphi methodology that draws on both policy and academic insights, we assess the currently perceived state of play in global forest governance and identify possible future directions. Results indicate that state actors are seen to be key in providing supportive regulatory frameworks, yet interviewees do not believe these will be established at the global scale. Rather, respondents point to issue-specific, regional and inter-regional coalitions of the willing, involving the private sector, to innovate global forest governance. Linking forest issues with high politics may hold promise, as demonstrated by initiatives regarding illegal logging and timber trade. Confident rule-setting in support of the public good as well as responsible investments are seen as further avenues. New forest governance “hypes”, if used strategically, can provide leverage points and resources to ensure sustainability effects on the ground. At the same time, informal markets are often crucial for governance outcomes and need consideration. As such, clarifying tenure in sovereignty-sensitive ways is important, as are innovative ways for inclusive “glocal” decision-making. Lastly, new technologies, big data and citizens’ capacities are identified as potent innovation opportunities, for making global dependencies between consumption, production and deforestation visible and holding players accountable across the value chains.
... However, even though the focus of this analysis on discourses and frames around the new FC in Brazil presumes a strong national focus, the weakness of national governance and enforcement detected within the discourse could have resulted in a shift of perspective toward governance beyond the nation state. All the more so, as the trend of the scientific international forest debate becomes increasingly international and moves toward legality verification, including market-based instruments and consumer driven policies like FLEGT, EUTR, Lacey Act, or certification systems (e.g., Cashore and Stone, 2012;Maryudi, 2016;Wibowo et al., 2019). Instead, the analyzed discourses frame governance mainly as national, with the exception of the NGOs/IOs discourse, which however still deals with central governmental authorities and command and control instruments. ...
In 2012, the new, revised Forest Code was established as the legal and regulatory framework for Brazilian forests. Though illegal logging has continued, frames about Brazil's forest policy and management have changed since that time. While until 2010 the successful implementation of forest policies and the resulting decline in deforestation rates were there for all to see and appreciate, the increase in the deforestation rate since then has become the focus of international criticism. With the help of a structured review of international scientific literature, newspaper articles, and programmes initiated by non-governmental organizations' (NGO) and international organizations' (IO), this paper aims to analyse the frames of illegal logging and its governance responses in Brazil since 2012. The review is guided by the framework of diagnostic (What is the problem? Who is to blame?) and prognostic framing (proposed policy and governance solutions). The main findings revealed a master frame of environmental justice that combines injustice toward indigenous people with the victimization of forest and environment at large. Embedded in this master frame, specific frames that follow the institutional logic of the single policy discourses have been identified. Finally, the results show a strong national focus of governance with continued emphasis on command and control instruments.
... The shifting of attention from timber production to biodiversity conservation, due to the recognition of the multiple benefits of forests with regard to ecosystem services could be an important measure to harness much from these resources on long term basis. These changes in forest management also have been observed across the globe, as reflected in policies and regulations with a focus on biodiversity conservation ( [7,12,13] . ...
India, provide habitation to vast area of forests which interacts with number of biotic and a biotic component which provides goods and services. In consideration of the fact that forests with woodlands and huge biodiversity contribute significantly towards development of economy of Jammu and Kashmir, a northern state of India, an attempt has been made in this study to investigate the forest sector in Jammu and Kashmir and to check its structural changes and determinants of growth. The study confirms that, recently forestry sector (FNDP) has contributed about 10 per cent to the agricultural net domestic product and 2 per cent of state net domestic product. FNDP has increased significantly over the years and the estimates of compound growth rates indicated that the area exploited for extraction has decelerated at 6.33 per cent per annum, while the quantity extracted for it by 3.81 per cent. Consistent with declining extraction, the totals out-turn has been consistently declined over the years and has reached to just 73.92 (000m 3) in recent years. The government has invested 408 lakh rupees in forest and logging sector during 2013-14 though it has declined drastically since 2005-06 that led to the decline of investment intensities to this sector over the years. Estimates of Forest Growth Model revealed that rural literacy, public investment in forestry, plantation and export value has contributed positively in forest development while proportion of urban population, rural poverty has negative impact on it. Based upon various findings, the study put forth few policy options for sustenance of forests and provide spectrum of ecosystem goods and services towards the human recreational activities.
... We find two distinct challenges with many existing approaches: they either treat private and public governance as interacting, but independent, realms; or they downplay distinct private and public authority dynamics by treating them as simply two different places in which governance emerges. Both approaches inadvertently place less attention on how different actors might simultaneously shape each arena and challenge the authority and legitimacy of either of them; and downplay how public and private actors may consciously or unconsciously "divvy up" different aspects of a policy mixes designed to address specific challenges (Levin et al. 2009;Cashore & Stone 2012;Cashore 2016). To identify a middle ground framework more consistent with empirical results in this special issue, we introduce, propose, and detail the term "governance spheres" to capture the variety of ways that state and non-state actors seek influence. ...
Private organizations play a growing role in governing global issues alongside traditional public actors such as states, international organizations, and subnational governments. What do we know about how private authority and public policy interact? What are the implications of answering this question for understanding support for, and effects of, policy development generally? The purpose of this article is to reflect on these questions by introducing, and reviewing, a special issue that challenges explicit claims, and implicit methodologies, that treat private and public governance realms as distinct and/or static. We do so by advancing a theoretical and conceptual framework with which to explore how the contributions to this special issue enhance an understanding about governance interactions across a range of empirical, sectoral, and regional domains. We specifically introduce the concept of governance spheres to capture the proliferation of issue domains denoted by highly fluid interactions across public and private governance boundaries.
... Pereira, 2015) due to weak mandates of international environmental bureaucracies (e.g., (Biermann et al., 2009) and the customized implementation of global regimes in line with the interests of strong domestic actors (e.g., Logmani et al., 2017). Positively, the fact that regional regimes consider forest issues, directly or indirectly, has succeeded in drawing the attention of the political and academic arena to these issues in recent years (e.g., Cashore & Stone, 2012;Gale & Cadman, 2014;Giessen & Sahide, 2017;Nurrochmat et al., 2016;Sahide & Giessen, 2015;Sahide et al., 2016). On the other hand, the assumption that regional regimes are closer to the ecological basis of the problems has caused several of them to emerge in the last decades. ...
Regional environmental regimes are receiving attention in both political practice and academia because of growing frustration with global environmental regimes caused by their inability to successfully address major international issues, such as climate change, among others. Along this path, based on qualitative data from key policy documents produced between 1978 and 2018, this study aims to analyze the regional governance of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO), a regime formally focused on promoting sustainable development in the Amazon region. In this context, this research seeks to answer the following empirical questions: 1) What is the institutional design of ACTO and how has the regime been formalized since its inception in 1978?; and 2) What are ACTO's forest policy objectives, policy instruments and the precise configuration of these instruments; are the policy objectives coherent and the means to achieve them consistent; and how has it developed since the signing of the treaty in 1978? The results show that ACTO's formalization, through the evolution of its institutional design, was driven by three main impulses enhanced by the occurrence of major international environmental events; and that its current forest policy is characterized by concrete but incoherent objectives, as well as consistent policy instruments financed exclusively by international donors. Finally, it is concluded that the late formalization of ACTO was driven by the interest of member states to present a solid image to international donors in order to channel financial resources from international cooperation to the Amazon region; and that the development of the forest policy of this regime has been strongly influenced by monetary interest in the financial incentives provided by external actors, rather than by the member states' vision of the Amazon territories.
... Together with the reinforcement of national sovereignty, these institutional characteristics are argued to be the main causes of regime non-effectiveness. In contrast, other studies [12,[19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26] point to the emergence of an effective international forest governance as result of the growth of transnational non-state efforts and erosion of national sovereignty and synergetic interactions between state and non-state regulation. ...
... Previous studies on the implementation of the international forest regime complex at the national level have analysed how relevant international influences are on domestic forest policy change in different countries through the four pathways of influence from global governance . While some studies focused on only one pathway of influence, as who analysed how the international norms and discourse pathway through the concept of sustainable forest management and the resulting Montreal process was implemented in Canada following the interests of domestic actors and their networks; and Cashore and Stone (2012) who analysed the influence of market mechanisms as forest certification and timber legality verification systems in South East Asia. Other studies have tried to explain how international influences occur through the four pathways. ...
... Together with the reinforcement of national sovereignty, these institutional characteristics are argued to be the main causes of regime non-effectiveness. In contrast, other studies [12,[19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26] point to the emergence of an effective international forest governance as result of the growth of transnational non-state efforts and erosion of national sovereignty and synergetic interactions between state and non-state regulation. ...
This paper reviews the design of the international forest governance and policy, and analyses its impacts in addressing deforestation and forest degradation as global sustainability issues. Informed by literatures on international relations, regulatory governance of global commodity production, and international pathways of domestic influence, key arrangements are aggregated into six types, and mapped in terms of their main aims, instruments, and implementation mechanisms. Key analytical dimensions, such as the actors involved (state–private–mixed), the character of legal authority (legally binding–non-legally binding), and the geopolitical scope (global–transnational) helped to identify the potential and limitations of arrangements. They were assessed and compared in terms of their main pathways of influence such as international hard-law rules, cross-sectoral policy integration, non-legally binding norms and discourses, global market mechanisms, and direct access through capacity building. Our results reveal important challenges in the design and implementation, and in the pathways of influence, of the forest governance arrangements, including major inconsistencies with forest-adverse economic sectors. We conclude about the need for coherent international forest-related policy cooperation and integrative actions in agriculture, bioenergy, and mining to enhance the prospects of achieving the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
This article's originality and major contribution lies in its empirical roots. Based on the case study of the European Voluntary Partnership Agreement on Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (VPA-FLEGT) in Cameroon, the paper questions what happens when global forest governance reforms meet domestic politics in Africa. Coupled with a carefully selected literature, this entrenchment helped to clearly identify the formal and informal strategies deployed by key actors to put or resist the European sustainable forest management policy reforms on the agenda in Cameroon from 2003 to 2019. The signing of the VPA-FLEGT in Cameroon triggered several debates on the relevance of a new legal instrument for sustainable forest management against the backdrop of an already prolific (poorly or non-enforced) legislation. This article aims, on the one hand, at analysing the process through which VPA-FLEGT was put on the agenda in Cameroon, identifying the key actors involved and examining their roles, interests and strategies as regards this global forest policy instrument. On the other hand, it seeks to investigate how the institutionalisation of VPA-FLEGT in Cameroon change or not the politics of forestland governance in national arenas. In order to attain the aforementioned objectives, we adopted a sociology of the State-based approach. The research indicates that (i) although VPA-FLEGT is an innovative policy instrument in Cameroon, it essentially relies on recycled already existing forest policies. (ii) Several technical and political roadblocks, largely underestimated or overlooked by European actors hamper the implementation of this instrument. (iii) Lastly, the legitimacy and relevance of VPA-FLEGT in Cameroon is subject to many controversies and tensions among the main actors. Our research shows that Cameroonian state bureaucracy’s commitment to this initiative was mainly motivated by a ‘cunning government’ strategy of rents capture and blame avoidance tactics..
Currently, the focus of international attention to forest issues has shifted from monitoring compliance with the principles of sustainable forest management to monitoring the legality of forest use, to the introduction of an international “regime of legality” in the forest sector. Opposition to illegal logging is growing in the world. The Russian Federation has a long and successful experience in preserving its forests, and has repeatedly initiated international agreements and negotiation processes on forest conservation, including the issue of illegal logging. Unfortunately, for a number of reasons, in the last five years, there have been no international activities and coordination activities of the Russian Federation in these processes. The forest legislation of the Russian Federation has no clear definition of “illegal logging”. Currently, illegal logging is detected mainly outside the boundaries of forest land – during the arrest of violators during transportation and / or sale of illegally harvested wood. This system is random (periodic raids, law enforcement operations) and allows to detect only a small part of offenses related to illegal logging. The volumes of illegal logging presented by official statistics do not correspond to real figures, they are underestimated many times. In this regard, the decisions taken by the state are either erroneous or do not reflect the depth of the existing problem. The current number of forest guards and their technical equipment do not allow for the adequate protection of forests, timely detection of illegal logging and bringing violators to justice. Decisions to replace forest protection with remote monitoring tools and information systems proved to be untenable. It is necessary to encourage state forest management bodies to receive maximum forest income in order to maintain a full-fledged, technically equipped forest protection. It is also necessary create a special fund of the Russian Federation for the forests protection and regeneration using cash inflow from the payments for the use of forests (by analogy with the creation of a system of road funds in the Russian Federation).
A single timber theft incident can cost family forest landowners thousands of dollars. Preventing illegal timber harvesting is also an important component of sustainability. A survey of consulting foresters and interviews with investigators, prosecutors, and forest industry were conducted to document timber theft detections, resolutions, and security measures. Complete questionnaires were received from 430 foresters from 11 southern states (37% response rate). Interviews were conducted with five investigators, two prosecuting attorneys, and 10 forest industry representatives. Almost half (47%) of consulting foresters had encountered at least one timber theft incident in the previous 3 years, but losses represented <1% of timber harvest value. State forestry agencies investigated approximately 100 cases per year, while local law enforcement rarely investigated these cases. Timber theft cases were most often resolved outside of court with very few cases prosecuted. Vigilance by foresters and law enforcement is necessary to prevent timber theft.
Multi‐stakeholder initiatives (MSIs) convene stakeholders from different contexts to deliberate on corporate social responsibility (CSR) issues. Extant research focuses on the deliberative potential of internal governance structures yet neglects the influence of broader sociopolitical contexts on the members that participate in them. Anti‐corruption is one CSR issue that MSIs increasingly address which is particularly context dependent. Therefore, this study examines how different sociopolitical contexts influence members’ justifications and approaches to anti‐corruption during MSI deliberations and ultimately, how this impacts the MSI’s approach to anti‐corruption. Through a single case study of an MSI, the ASEAN CSR Network which is situated in Southeast Asia with members representing business and CSR organizations in six different countries, the findings show that the different National Business Systems clearly influence the member justifications and approaches to anti‐corruption. Further, the MSI reinforces and promotes the adoption of the different national business system‐related justifications and approaches ultimately, leading to an MSI approach to anti‐corruption which is a composite of the different national business system‐related approaches. This paper makes three contributions to the literature on MSI deliberations. First, it proposes a novel framework that links the influence of national business systems to member justifications and approaches to anti‐corruption during MSI deliberations by leveraging the orders of worth framework. Second, it shows that the concept of compromise may be more relevant to understanding and evaluating MSI deliberations than the notion of consensus. Third, it contributes through the empirical study of an MSI developed in Southeast Asia addressing anti‐corruption.
The ecology of governance organizations (GOs) matters for what is or is not governed, what legitimate powers any governor may hold, and whose political preferences are instantiated in rules. The array of actors who comprise the current system of global governance has grown dramatically in recent decades. Especially notable has been the growth of private governance organizations (PGOs). Drawing on organizational ecology, I posit that the rise of PGOs is both required and facilitated by disagreements between states that block the creation of what might be otherwise effective intergovernmental organizations (IGOs). In a form of “double-negative regulation,” states block IGOs, which in turn leave open niches that are then filled by PGOs, which then both complement and sometimes substitute for state law. The organizational ecology approach outlined here extends and refocuses inquiry in systematic ways that give us a fuller understanding of how and why PGOs have emerged as one of the most striking features of the contemporary world order. The key innovations in this paper are to (a) shift the level of analysis from single agents or populations of agents to the entire field of GOs, including states, IGOs, and PGOs and (b) draw on principles of ecology to understand the composition and dynamics of systems of governance.
Many forest-related problems are considered relevant today. One might think of deforestation, illegal logging and biodiversity loss. Yet, many governance initiatives have been initiated to work on their solutions. This Element takes stock of these issues and initiatives by analysing different forest governance modes, shifts and norms, and by studying five cases (forest sector governance, forest legality, forest certification, forest conservation, participatory forest management). Special focus is on performance: are the many forest governance initiatives able to change established practices of forest decline (Chloris worldview) or are they doomed to fail (Hydra worldview)? The answer will be both, depending on geographies and local conditions. The analyses are guided by discursive institutionalism and philosophical pragmatism. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
Cambridge Core - European Government, Politics and Policy - Private Governance and Public Authority - by Stefan Renckens
The smallholder tree-farm resources of Southeast Asia are generating substantial benefits for growers and support many successful domestic wood processors. They could provide even greater benefits at all levels of the supply and value chains if they enjoyed a sympathetic policy framework; technical and specialised support and training to promote productivity gains; and greater knowledge of market trends and access requirements. This paper reviews current forest certification systems as applied to smallholder tree-farmers in Southeast Asia, with a focus on the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Thailand and Viet Nam, and questions whether perceived benefits match operational realities. A critical issue in any form of transactional relationship between two or more people or institutions is to answer to mutual satisfaction the question, ‘Who benefits?’ This is particularly important in transactions between relatively weak and vulnerable and relatively strong and powerful individuals and groups, such as the relationships between smallholder tree-farmers in Southeast Asia and purchasers of certified wood products. We explore factors that drive certification and how they intersect with salient characteristics of smallholder tree-farms restricting the adoption of certification. We argue that new approaches are required to deliver the benefits necessary to expand smallholder participation in wood production supply chains, such as national codes of practice for small-scale forestry and agreed standards that encourage mutual recognition between verification systems. Innovative approaches should be adopted to deliver a fair, equitable and inclusive model that is relevant, practical, feasible and cost-effective for smallholder tree-farmers. As currently practised, certification has many positive aspects for some types of forests and wood producers but rarely for smallholder tree-farmers. A new approach to smallholder forest certification is required to ensure that the answer to the question, ‘Who benefits?’ is, ‘All participants in the supply and value chain, including smallholder tree-farmers’. To achieve this outcome, certification organisations and forest products businesses should remove existing barriers to smallholder participation and develop initiatives to more fairly link smallholder tree-farmers with others in the supply chain, based on enabling and mutually supportive partnerships.
In recent years, transnational and domestic nongovernmental organizations have created non–state market–driven (NSMD) governance systems whose purpose is to develop and implement environmentally and socially responsible management practices. Eschewing traditional state authority, these systems and their supporters have turned to the market’s supply chain to create incentives and force companies to comply.
This paper develops an analytical framework designed to understand better the emergence of NSMD governance systems and the conditions under which they may gain authority to create policy. Its theoretical roots draw on pragmatic, moral, and cognitive legitimacy granting distinctions made within organizational sociology, while its empirical focus is on the case of sustainable forestry certification, arguably the most advanced case of NSMD governance globally. The paper argues that such a framework is needed to assess whether these new private governance systems might ultimately challenge existing state–centered authority and public policy–making processes, and in so doing reshape power relations within domestic and global environmental governance.
The purpose of this article is to examine empirically the impact of environmental certification on firm financial performance
(FP). The main question is whether there is a “green premium” for certified firms, and, if so, for what kind of certification.
We analyze the short-run and the long-run stock price performance using an event-study methodology on a sample of Canadian
and U.S. firms. The results of short-run event abnormal returns indicate that forest certification does not have any significant
impact on firm FP regardless of the certification system carried out by firms. Unlike the short-run results, the long-run
post-event abnormal returns suggest that forest certification has, on average, a negative impact on firm FP. However, the
impact of forest certification on firm FP depends on who grants the certification, since only industry-led certification (Sustainable
Forestry Initiative, Canadian Standards Association and ISO14001) are penalized by financial markets, whereas non-governmental
organizations–led Forest Stewardship Council certification is not.
Stakeholder theory has been a popular heuristic for describing the management environment for years, but it has not attained full theoretical status. Our aim in this article is to contribute to a theory of stakeholder identification and salience based on stakeholders possessing one or more of three relationship attributes: power, legitimacy, and urgency. By combining these attributes, we generate a typology of stakeholders, propositions concerning their salience to managers of the firm, and research and management implications.
To date much of the global-scale comparative research on environmental forest policy has focused on ‘macro-level’ policy goals and objectives. Although it is important for identifying broad trends, such research overlooks the specific policy settings that serve to ‘set the bar’ for on-the-ground environmental performance. This article helps to fill that gap by presenting and applying a framework for comparing specific forest practice requirements across 47 jurisdictions worldwide. We develop inductive hypotheses to explore the policy patterns that emerge. Socio-economic parameters – the level of economic development, form of land ownership, and enforcement capacity – appear to strongly influence policy divergence, whereas environmental science, by itself, appears unable to explain our findings. The development of private certification standards is consistent with public policy differences. The article discusses the implications of these findings for policy strategists interested in promoting scientifically informed, and environmentally effective forest policies.
The world's tropical rainforests are disappearing rapidly and governments appear powerless to stop it. Employing an innovative, critical approach to international regime theory, the book examines the structure and operation of the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO). An outcome of an international commodity agreement signed in 1983, the ITTO aims to balance tropical timber demand with supply. At its biannual meetings environmentalists pressured government and industry representatives to introduce tough sustainable forest management guidelines and effective compliance mechanisms. Despite this pressure, the history of the ITTO, including its Mission to Sarawak, revealed how the ideas and interests of corporations and governments coalesced to form a blocking coalition preventing the adoption of genuine sustainable forest management.
The destruction of the world's forests is a well-known by-product of the development of modern society. Eighty per cent of the forests that originally covered the Earth have been cleared, fragmented or otherwise degraded by logging, mining, clearance for agriculture or urbanization. Although increased public awareness, forest conservation and reforestation initiatives and reductions in air pollution levels have helped forests to recover and grow in developed countries, most of the world's forests - located in the Amazon Basin, Central Africa, South-East Asia and the Russian Federation - are still significantly threatened. In tropical countries, logging for wood products is respons ible for about one-third of total deforestation (in some countries, the proportion reaches one half or greater). Possibly more than half of all the logging activities in the most vulnerable regions are conducted illegally. Worldwide, estimates suggest that illegal activities may account for over a tenth of the total global timber trade, itself worth over US$150 billion a year. Since the late 1990s, international attenti on has increasingly focused on the scale of illegal forestry activities, and their environmental, economic and social impacts. An important part of the debate has been the role of consumer countries in driving the demand for timber and timber products, and hence increasing the incentives for illegal logging. This article examines the efforts of the EU, through its Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) initiative, to try to exclude illegal products from its imports and to build markets for verifiably legal products.
In the absence of effective national and intergovernmental regulation to ameliorate global envir-onmental and social problems, ''private'' alternatives have proliferated including self-regulation, corporate social responsibility, and public–private partnerships. Among them, ''non-state market driven'' (NSMD) governance systems deserve elevated attention because they offer the strongest regulation and potential to socially embed global markets. NSMD systems encourage compli-ance by recognizing and tracking, along the market's supply chain, responsibly produced goods and services. They aim to establish ''political legitimacy'' whereby firms, social actors, and stakeholders are united into a community that accepts ''shared rule as appropriate and justi-fied.'' Drawing inductively on evidence from a range of NSMD systems, and deductively on theories of institutions and learning, we develop an analytical framework and a preliminary set of causal propositions to explicate whether and how political legitimacy might be achieved. The framework corrects existing literatures' inattention to the conditioning effects of global social structure and its tendency to treat actor evaluations of NSMD systems as static and stra-tegic. It identifies a three-phase process through which NSMD systems might gain political legitimacy. It posits that a ''logic of consequences'' alone cannot explain actor evaluations: the explanation requires greater reference to a ''logic of appropriateness'' as systems progress through the phases. The framework aims to guide future empirical work to assess the potential of NSMD systems to socially embed global markets.
Those supplying private regulation in the global economy face two fundamental challenges if they are to ameliorate the problems for which they create these systems: targets must conform to, while demanders must have proof of, regulatory compliance. This paper explores an important area absent from assessments as to whether, when, and how, private regulatory bodies are successful in improving behavior and rewarding compliant firms: the role of technological innovations. Employing an inductive, comparative case study analysis, we offer an analytical framework that distinguishes technological innovations that improve tracking mechanisms from innovations that directly improve on-the-ground performance . We illustrate the utility of the analytical framework through an assessment of technological innovations in shaping “non-state market driven†global certification programs governing forestry, fisheries, coffee, e-waste, and climate.
What types of institutional configurations hold the most promise in fostering efforts for long-term amelioration of enduring environmental, social, and economic challenges facing the world’s forests? This chapter presents, and applies an analytical framework with which to review research findings and analyses that shed light on what appear to be the most promising institutional settings with which to address these drivers, ameliorate problems, and encourage responsible and sustainable forest management around the globe. Our framework focuses attention on the shift from government to governance; political authority; disentangling abstract policy for specific requirements; and capacity enhancing knowledge-generating and administrative institutions. We reveal that the global nature of economic, social, and environmental demands on the world’s forests, and complex commercial trade relationships, require that we integrate analyses of domestic and local responses to assess the role of innovative regional and global institutions designed to address these “good governance” challenges. We conclude by calling for much greater attention to the potential of synergistic institutional intersection to respond to new and enduring challenges.
List of Tables List of Figures Acknowledgements List of Acronyms Used The Tropical Rainforest Crisis International Regimes: A Conceptual History A Neo-Gramscian Approach to International Regimes Tropical Deforestation and Rainforest Degradation The Tropical Timber Trade The International Tropical Timber Agreement, 1983 State Coalitions Contesting the Tropical Timber Trade Regime Industry and Civil Society Organizations Contesting the TTTR The Politics of Regime Creation: Normative Content Eco-Certification and Labelling as Compliance Mechanisms The ITTO Mission to Sarawak Explaining Tropical Deforestation and Rainforest Degradation Appendix Bibliography Index
In recent years a startling policy innovation has emerged within global and domestic environmental governance: certification systems that promote socially responsible business practices by turning to the market, rather than the state, for rule-making authority. This book documents five cases in which the Forest Stewardship Council, a forest certification program backed by leading environmental groups, has competed with industry and landowner-sponsored certification systems for legitimacy. The authors compare the politics behind forest certification in five countries. They reflect on why there are differences regionally, discuss the impact the Forest Stewardship Council has had on other certification programs, and assess the ability of private forest certification to address global forest deterioration.
International concern about illegal forestry activities has grown markedly. Asian, African, and European governments have held high-level regional conferences on Forest Law Enforcement and Governance (FLEG). Indonesia has signed path-breaking Memoranda of Understanding on illegal logging with the United Kingdom, China, and Norway. The Convention on Biological Diversity, the United Nations Forum on Forests, the International Tropical Timber Organisation, and the G8 have all issued forceful statements, and incorporated the issue in their work plans. The European Commission has committed itself to formulating a European FLEG Action Plan. Japan and Indonesia have initiated an Asian Forest Partnership, with a major focus on illegal logging. Global Witness, the Environmental Investigation Agency, Transparency International, Greenpeace, Global Forest Watch, and Friends of the Earth have raised public awareness about the problem.
The stakeholder theory has been advanced and justified in the man- agement literature on the basis of its descriptive accuracy, instrumen- tal power, and normative validity. These three aspects of the theory, although interrelated, are quite distinct; they involve different types of evidence and argument and have different implications. In this article, we examine these three aspects of the theory and critique and integrate important contributions to the literature related to each. We conclude that the three aspects of stakeholder theory are mutually supportive and that the normative base of the theory-which includes the modern theory of property rights-is fundamental. If the unity of the corporate body is real, then there is reality and not simply legal fiction in the proposition that the man- agers of the unit are fiduciaries for it and not merely for its individual members, that they are . . . trustees for an institu- tion (with multiple constituents) rather than attorneys for the stockholders.
This article presents conclusions from a 10-year research program, the purpose of which has been to develop a framework and methodology, grounded in the reality of corporate behavior, for analyzing and evaluating corporate social performance. There are three principal sections: (a) a summary of the approaches, models, and methodologies used in conducting more than 70 field studies of corporate social performance from 1983-1993; (b) a discussion of the principal conclusions derived from the data that (1) corporations manage relationships with stakeholder groups rather than with society as a whole, (2) it is important to distinguish between social issues and stakeholder issues, and (3) it is necessary to identify the appropriate level of analysis in order to evaluate CSP; and (c) a discussion of propositions and areas for further research.
Timber producer states are coming under increasing pressure to guarantee the legality of their production on international markets. The need to attest to the legality of traded goods demands a system to verify the authenticity of the claim, and it is with this aspect of timber policy development that the present article is concerned. The requirements for timber verification are placed in the context of diverse experiences of verification in relation to international treaties and conventions. Drawing on the evidence of such international processes, the topic of verification turns out to be rather more complex than might initially be assumed. Issues that, at one level, appear narrowly technical and specific to the forest sector raise broader questions about political structures and relationships, and forms of public accountability. The paper discusses the implications of this, and identifies a number of principles of verification systems design. Policy Conclusions Verification requirements vary according to the interests of their proponents, as well as their (often multiple) objectives. When applied in technically complex environments, with diverse and potentially conflicting constituencies, verification needs to be viewed as a complex process of investigation and validation, with wide participation, and not merely as an act of technical inspection. There are a number of principles for effective verification design, including: the need for a supreme authority with the
This paper uses a stakeholder framework to review the empirical literature on corporate social performance (CSP), focusing particularly on studies attempting to correlate social with financial performance. Results show first that most studies correlate measures of business performance that as yet have no theoretical relationship (for example, the level of corporate charitable giving with return on investment). To make sense of this body of research, CSP studies must be integrated with stakeholder theory. Multiple stakeholders (a) set expectations for corporate performance, (b) experience the effects of corporate behavior, and (c) evaluate the outcomes of corporate behavior. However, we find that the empirical CSP literature mismatches variables in terms of which stakeholders are relevant to which kind of measure. Second, only the studies using market-based variables and theory show a consistent relationship between social and financial performance, particularly those showing a negative abnormal return to the stock price of companies experiencing product recalls. Although this paper shows that the CSP construct is not yet well-specified enough to produce stronger results, recent research suggests that much progress is being made both empirically and theoretically in developing valid and reliable measures of corporate social performance.
In this paper we present an application of the Energy and Climate Policy Interactions (ECPI) decision support tool for the qualitative ex-ante assessment of ten (10) combinations of energy and climate policy instruments addressing energy end users. This tool consists of four (4) methodological steps, where policymakers set preferences that determine the outcome of policy instruments interactions. Initially, interacting policy instruments are broken down in into their design characteristics, referring to parameters that describe functions of each instrument. Policymakers can express in a merit order the significance they attribute to these characteristics when designing a policy instrument. Evaluation criteria for assessing these instruments individually are used and policymakers can assign weights on them expressing their preferences. An overall assessment of combined policy instruments based on these steps have illustrated policy interactions added value per criterion and overall. The user of the tool takes useful insights as regards the most preferable combinations of policy instruments, the less preferable ones and those who are conflicting.
This article discusses the critical role of corporate governance in Russian business and management and its potential for promoting corporate social responsibility in that country. We describe the current state of these two phenomena and examine their linkages as they exist in Russia, and explain that this situation also applies in other transitioning economies. We conclude with implications for non-Russians who would do business with Russian counterparts, and reasons why they should be aware of how these important issues can affect their dealings in those situations. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
This article explores the relationship between economic integration and environmental regulation. It begins by observing that fears that economic competition would lead to a regulatory 'race toward the bottom' appear to have proven unwarranted: increased economic integration has proven compatible with the general strengthening of environmental standards. It then explains why economic interdependence has not led sub-national, national, and regional governments to compete by lowering their environmental standards. The article then explores various mechanisms by which economic integration has contributed to the strengthening of regulatory standards. It concludes by discussing the shortcomings of existing mechanisms of global environmental governance and specifying the circumstances under which regulatory coordination can promote more effective environmental governance.
This article surveys the extensive new literature that has brought about a renaissance of qualitative methods in political science over the past decade. It reviews this literature's focus on causal mechanisms and its emphasis on process tracing, a key form of within-case analysis, and it discusses the ways in which case-selection criteria in qualitative research differ from those in statistical research. Next, the article assesses how process tracing and typological theorizing help address forms of complexity, such as path dependence and interaction effects. The article then addresses the method of fuzzy-set analysis. The article concludes with a call for greater attention to means of combining alternative methodological approaches in research projects.
The failure of the worlds’ governments to agree on a binding global forest convention at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit led many leading environmental groups to advance eco-labelling ‘forest certification’ programmes that, they hoped, would achieve greater success in implementing sustainable forest management. Eschewing traditional State-centered authority, supporters of this ‘non-State market driven’ (NSMD) approach turn to customers of wood products to create compliance mechanisms, either through positive incentives such as market access or price premiums, or negative incentives such as ‘direct targeting’ or ‘boycott’ campaigns. Understanding how such systems might ‘ratchet up’ global forestry standards, we argue, requires that existing scholarship place greater attention on the role of public policies in helping to facilitate the impacts of private solutions. Specifically, we argue that scholars and practitioners need to assess strategic decisions not only on the basis of their appropriateness at present, but what they might do to trigger a global ‘race to the top’ at a later time.
The radical change in corporate governance systems is fundamental to the period of institutional upheaval characterizing transition economies. Using an institutional theory framework, this paper develops a model of responses to this change. The model is tested with data from 1,723 firms in 22 countries in Central and Eastern Europe and the Newly Independent States. The results suggest that a firm's adaptation to the new governance order will be facilitated or hampered depending on the characteristics of the institutional and organizational contexts it faces. A major implication of the study is the need to consider cultural and contextual embeddedness in explaining how governance systems transform.
The controversy about the benefits of certification to timber producers has centered on the “market premium” and “market access” arguments. Some studies claim evidence that consumers are willing to pay a market premium between 2% and 30% for sustainably produced, certified timber products. Others doubt or flatly deny this notion. Most of these studies are based on willingness-to-pay surveys of consumer demand leaving aside the crucial question whether or not the producers of certified logs, which bear the costs of forest certification, obtain a financial reward for their efforts.The paper contributes quantitative evidence to the on-going debate. Time series of prices of certified and uncertified logs (2000 to 2004) provided by three forest management units from Sabah, Malaysia, were examined in a comparative analysis (ANOVA) of 6 species groups. The results suggest that forest management certification achieves a market premium for certified logs. In particular high quality hardwoods (e.g. Selangan Batu, Keruing) destined for the export market fetch a price premium of 27% to 56%. Lower quality timbers (e.g. Kapur, Seraya) also fetch a price premium, however the difference is less pronounced (2% to 30%).
Starting from the conditions for a successful implementation of saving options, a general framework was developed to investigate possible interaction effects in sets of energy policy measures. Interaction regards the influence of one measure on the energy saving effect of another measure. The method delivers a matrix for all combinations of measures, with each cell containing qualitative information on the strength and type of interaction: overlapping, reinforcing, or independent of each other. Results are presented for the set of policy measures on household energy efficiency in the Netherlands for 1990–2003. The second part regards a quantitative analysis of the interaction effects between three major measures: a regulatory energy tax, investment subsidies and regulation of gas use for space heating. Using a detailed bottom-up model, household energy use in the period 1990–2000 was simulated with and without these measures. The results indicate that combinations of two or three policy measures yield 13–30% less effect than the sum of the effects of the separate measures.
CO2 emissions reduction, renewable energy deployment and energy efficiency are three main energy/environmental goals, particularly in Europe. Their relevance has led to the implementation of support schemes in these realms. Their coexistence may lead to overlaps, synergies and conflicts between them. The aim of this paper is to analyse the interactions between energy efficiency measures and renewable energy promotion, whereas previous analyses have focused on the interactions between emissions trading schemes (ETS) and energy efficiency measures and ETS and renewable energy promotion schemes. Furthermore, the analysis in this paper transcends the “certificate” debate (i.e., tradable green and white certificates) and considers other instruments, particularly feed-in tariffs for renewable electricity. The goal is to identify positive and negative interactions between energy efficiency and renewable electricity promotion and to assess whether the choice of specific instruments and design elements within those instruments affects the results of the interactions.
This paper extends the literature on firms’ behaviour under uncertainty by providing a simple framework for empirical analysis of general non-expected utility behaviour. We show that standard duality techniques can be used to derive and estimate demand and supply functions for non-expected utility maximizing firms. Moreover, the framework also provides a simple econometric test for a necessary condition for expected utility behaviour. In an empirical example we apply the model to the US Furniture and Fixtures industry and find that demand and supply functions retain all the usual “intuitive” properties. We test for expected utility behaviour and find that it cannot be rejected.
This paper presents a study of power relations and the development of forest policy with regards to the commercial use of forests in Russia from the mid 1970s to the present. The main interest lies in describing the changes in power relations influencing the development of forest policy by using a comparative analysis on Russian forest legislation. The main centres of power studied here are the federal authorities, regional and local leaders, and private forest industries. The findings on forest-policy development are reflective of the general political and economic movements in Russia. In the post-communist Russia, the balance of power relations in the forest sector have been in a state of flux. The role of private industries in forest-policy formulation, in spite of unstable ownership issues, is increasing. The lack of coherent national policy encompassing the development of forestry and forest industries has also been characteristic. The absence of clearly formulated policy has hindered and further complicated the debate and the on-going processes attempting to modernise the Russian forest sector and the drafting of the new Forest Code in particular.
Agricultural expansion and deforestation are spatial processes of land transformation that impact on landscape pattern. In peninsular Malaysia, the conversion of forested areas into two major cash crops--rubber and oil palm plantations--has been identified as driving significant environmental change. To date, there has been insufficient literature studying the link between changes in landscape patterns and land-related development policies. Therefore, this paper examines: (i) the links between development policies and changes in land use/land cover and landscape pattern and (ii) the significance and implications of these links for future development policies. The objective is to generate insights on the changing process of land use/land cover and landscape pattern as a functional response to development policies and their consequences for environmental conditions. Over the last century, the development of cash crops has changed the country from one dominated by natural landscapes to one dominated by agricultural landscapes. But the last decade of the century saw urbanization beginning to impact significantly. This process aligned with the establishment of various development policies, from land development for agriculture between the mid 1950s and the 1970s to an emphasis on manufacturing from the 1980s onward. Based on a case study in Selangor, peninsular Malaysia, a model of landscape pattern change is presented. It contains three stages according to the relative importance of rubber (first stage: 1900--1950s), oil palm (second stage: 1960s--1970s), and urban (third stage: 1980s--1990s) development that influenced landscape fragmentation and heterogeneity. The environmental consequences of this change have been depicted through loss of biodiversity, geohazard incidences, and the spread of vector-borne diseases. The spatial ecological information can be useful to development policy formulation, allowing diagnosis of the country's "health" and sustainability. The final section outlines the usefulness of landscape analysis in the policy-making process to prevent further fragmentation of the landscape and forest loss in Malaysia in the face of rapid economic development.
Private Sector Forest Legality Initiatives as a Complement to Public Action
- Richard Donovan
Donovan, Richard, Z., 2010. Private Sector Forest Legality Initiatives as a Complement
to Public Action. Rainforest Alliance.
Anti-Illegal Logging" Policies EU-Due Diligence Regulation-US Lacey Act Amendment. Paper Read at 23rd IUFRO World Congress
- Andreas Ottitsch
Ottitsch, Andreas, 2010. Comparative evaluation of EU and US-"Anti-Illegal Logging"
Policies EU-Due Diligence Regulation-US Lacey Act Amendment. Paper Read at
23rd IUFRO World Congress August 23, at Seoul, South Korea.
Roll-call Vote on Obligations of Operators Who Place Timber and Timber Products on the Market
- Votewatch
- Eu
Votewatch.eu, 2010. Roll-call Vote on Obligations of Operators Who Place Timber and
Timber Products on the Market 2010. [cited August 28 2010].
Public Consultation on 'Additional Options to Combat Illegal Logging
European Commission, 2008. Public Consultation on 'Additional Options to Combat Illegal
Logging' Analysis and Report.
Does policy reflect environmental science? Comparing public and private harvesting practices policies
- Contance Mcdermott
- Cashore
- Benjamin
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McDermott, Contance, Cashore, Benjamin, Kanowski, Peter, forthcoming. Does policy
reflect environmental science? Comparing public and private harvesting practices
policies Journal of Integrative Environmental Sciences.
Timber Theft Prevention: Introduction to Security for Forest Managers
- William B Magrath
- Richard L Grandalski
- Gerald L Stuckey
- Garry B Vikanes
- Graham R Wilkinson
Magrath, William B., Grandalski, Richard L., Stuckey, Gerald L., Vikanes, Garry B.,
Wilkinson, Graham R., 2007. Timber Theft Prevention: Introduction to Security
for Forest Managers. The World Bank, Washington, DC.
- B Cashore
- M W Stone
B. Cashore, M.W. Stone / Forest Policy and Economics 18 (2012) 13–22
Malaysian timber exporters may get to meet EU buyers first. New Strait Times
- Ooi Ching
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Ching, Ooi Tee, 2007. Malaysian timber exporters may get to meet EU buyers first. New
Strait Times. January 9, 2007.
Smart Regulation: Designing Environmental Policy, Oxford Socio-legal Studies
- Neil Gunningham
- Grabosky
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Gunningham, Neil, Grabosky, Peter N., Sinclair, Darren (Eds.), 1998. Smart Regulation:
Designing Environmental Policy, Oxford Socio-legal Studies. Clarendon Press and
Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York.
Illegal logging: causes and consequences. Paper Read at The Forests Dialogue on Illegal Logging
- David Kaimowitz
Kaimowitz, David, 2005. Illegal logging: causes and consequences. Paper Read at The
Forests Dialogue on Illegal Logging, at Hong Kong, China.
Khatchadourian, Raffi, 2008. The stolen forests. The New Yorker.
Timber body funds to enhance Papua New Guinea forest law enforcement. BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific
BBC, 2007. Timber body funds to enhance Papua New Guinea forest law enforcement.
BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific. November 27, 2008.
The US Lacey Act amendments: wood product supply chain tips and myths. Floor Covering Institute Blog
- Negley
Negley, 2010. The US Lacey Act amendments: wood product supply chain tips and
myths. Floor Covering Institute Blog. April 20.
Illegal Logging: Law Enforcement, Livelihoods and the Timber Trade
- Luca Tacconi
Tacconi, Luca (Ed.), 2007. Illegal Logging: Law Enforcement, Livelihoods and the Timber Trade: Earthscan.
Forest law enforcement, governance and trade in Asia—an update. Legality of Traded Timber: The Development Challenges
- Hooi Thang
- Chiew
Thang, Hooi Chiew, 2008. Forest law enforcement, governance and trade in Asia—an
update. Legality of Traded Timber: The Development Challenges. FAO, Rome.
FLEGT: opportunities and challenges for China. Paper Read at CAF/EFI/ ITTO Side Event at 23rd IUFRO World Congress Side Event FLEGT: Opportunities and Challenges
- Lu Wenming
Wenming, Lu, 2010. FLEGT: opportunities and challenges for China. Paper Read at CAF/EFI/
ITTO Side Event at 23rd IUFRO World Congress Side Event FLEGT: Opportunities and
Challenges, August 25, at Seoul, South Korea.