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Impacts and Costs of Forest Certification:
A Survey of SFI and FSC in North America
Fred Cubbage and Susan Moore
Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
fred_cubbage@ncsu.edu & susan_moore@ncsu.edu
Presented at:
2008 Sustainable Forestry Initiative Meeting
Minneapolis, MN
23 September 2008
Outline
Forest certification extent
NCSU 2007 North America surveys
¾SFI and FSC
¾Certification impacts
¾Certification costs
¾Satisfaction and retention
Discussion and Conclusions
World Forest Certification Systems
and Area, 2008 (million ha)
Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) 104
Programme Endorsement For Cert (PEFC) 202
¾Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) 61
¾Canadian Standards Association (CSA) 76
¾Europe 57
¾Certificación Forestal (CertFor) 2
¾Certificação Florestal (CerFlor) 1
¾Australian Forestry Standard 8
¾American Tree Farm System (ATFS) 12
Malaysian Timber Cert Council (MTCC) 5
Total 323
~8% of 3.9 billion ha of world forests; Note: ISO 14001 areas not included
Sources: PEFC, FSC, MTCC web sites; ATFS – personal comm.
Certified Forests in the Americas, 2008 (000 ha)
Country Forest Area FSC SFI ATFS, CSA,
Cerflor, CertFor Cert as %
of Total
Canada 310 134 23 593 39 199 75 759 44.7
USA 303 089 9 976 22 158 12 100 14.6
Costa Rica 2 391 59 - - 2.5
Guatemala 3 938 509 - - 12.9
Brazil 477 698 6 184 - 890 1.5
Uruguay 1 506 407 - - 27.0
Bolivia 58 740 1 727 - - 2.9
Argentina 33 021 231 - - 0.6
Chile 16 121 322 - 1 819 13.3
All Americas 3 856 488 45 110 61 358 90 568 5.1
197,036,000 ha in the Americas; Source: FSC, SFI, and PEFC Program Web Sites 2008
Forest Certification - SFI Objectives
1) Broaden implementation of sustainable
forestry and sustainable harvest levels
2) Ensure long-term forest productivity &
reforestation, protect from fire, disease, etc
3) Protect water quality in streams, lakes, and
other water bodies w/BMPs
4) Manage quality & distribution of wildlife
habitat and biological diversity
5) Manage visual impact of harvesting and other
forest operations
6) Manage ecological, historical, cultural sites
2004-2009 Edition SFI Program
Forest Certification - SFI Objectives
7) Promote efficient resource utilization
8) Broaden sustainable forestry through wood
procurement systems
9) Improve research, science, technology
10) Improve practice by foresters, loggers,
operators w/training and education
11) Comply with federal, state, local regs
12) Provide for public participation
13) Promote continual improvement; monitor,
measure, and report progress 2004-2009 Edition SFI Program
Forest Certification - FSC Principles
1) Compliance with laws & FSC principles
2) Tenure and use rights & responsibilities
3) Indigenous people’s rights
4) Community relations & worker’s rights
5) Benefits from the forest (multiple)
6) Environmental impact (biodiversity)
7) Management plan
8) Monitoring and assessment
9) Maintain high conservation value forests
10) Plantations FSC 2003
Certification Impacts
Wisconsin Survey of FSC Benefits/Satisfaction
Three Roles for Certification
Market-based incentives
¾Price premiums
¾Market share
Signal of high forestry standards to external
stakeholders
Improve forest practices through learning
¾Technology transfer to owners
¾Encourages more management review and
adapting new practices
Survey of 91 FSC certified forest owners in U.S.
Rickenbach and Overdevest 2006
Wisconsin Survey of FSC Results
Market-based incentives
¾Ranked moderately high
¾More important with large owners
¾Low satisfaction among all owners
Signal to external stakeholders
¾Highest expectations, highest satisfaction, all owners
Improved learning
¾Lowest expectations of 3; moderate satisfaction
¾Public owners received greatest benefit
Overall assessment
¾Large private and public – mostly positive
¾Small private – neither positive or negative
¾Most will re-certify
¾Most but small owners recommend FSC Ibid.
Cubbage, Moore, and Colleagues
North Carlina State University
Certification Impact Evaluation in Americas
SFI – USA and Canada – 2007
FSC –USA –2007
FSC – Argentina - 2006
CertFor and FSC – Chile – 2007
ATFS - 2008
NCSU Certification Impact Study
Survey of certification impacts in the Americas
Extensive survey of
¾Personnel changes and job descriptions
¾Changes in forest management, social and legal aspects,
economics and program administration
¾Summary of non-conformances or conditions
¾Benefits and problems with certification
¾Satisfaction and recommendations
Questionnaire reviewed by SFI, AF&PA, FSC, ATFS, USDA
FS, University sectors
Used for all sectors
Implemented sequentially across Americas
Responses Rate, New Employees, Assignments,
and Time Devoted to Certification
SFI
Forest
Management
SFI
Wood
Procurement
FSC
Forest
Management
Responses – Number (%) 41 / 66( 62%) 14 / 26 (54%) 52 / 98 (53%)
Firms Adding Employees for
Certification - Number (%)
{~1-2 added}
11 (28%) 4 (27%) 13 (25%)
Firms Reassigning Employees
for Certification - Number (%)
{1-8 reassigned}
28 (70%) 10 (67%) 18 (35%)
Share of Employee Efforts
Devoted to Certification (%) 9.8% 8.1 9.5%
Average Hours Required for
Certification Remedy / CARs
(Number)
164 0956
Average Number Management Changes
with Forest Certification by Type and System
14.1
5.9
1.4
6.8
13
3.3 1.8
7.9
12.9
6.8
2.4 3.7
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
Total Forest Management Social &
Legal Economic & System
SFI Forest Mgt SFI Procurement FSC Forest Mgt
Sample: SFI FM = 41; SFI Proc = 14; FSC FM = 52
Forest Management
Notable Changes with Certification
Practices with “Yes” Reply, Changes Made SFI (n=41) FSC (n=52)
Implementation monitoring 25 28
BMP use and monitoring 23 18
Meeting green-up standards 20 10
Determining clearcut size 14 10
Sustained yield / adjacency constraints 15 19
Biological diversity planning 16 16
Old growth / Special site reserves 10 30
Geographic information systems 13 18
Forest management plan 10 40
Chemical, soil protection, or plantation guidelines 9, 4, 4 18, 14, 6
Eliminating GMOs 0 3
Cubbage and Moore 2008, 13 of 22 practices listed above
FSC for U.S. only; SFI for U.S. and Canada combined; SFI for landowning firms only
Social and Legal
Notable Changes with Certification
Practices with “Yes” Reply, Changes Made SFI (n=41) FSC (n=52)
Legal planning and record keeping 11 15
Public / stakeholder meetings 8 19
Public release of management plan 6 21
Protecting indigenous rights 7 14
Offer program workshops 6 6
Comply with international treaties 1 5
Consulting with communities 6 20
Comply with environmental laws 3 2
Establishing tenure rights 0 1
Ensuring labor rights and practices 0 3
Cubbage and Moore 2008, 10 of 13 practices listed above
FSC for U.S. only; SFI for U.S. and Canada combined; SFI for landowning firms only
Economic and System
Notable Changes with Certification
Practices with “Yes” Reply, Changes Made SFI (n=41) FSC (n=52)
SIC / FSC promotion duties 32 16
Logger/supplier training 31 8
Program reporting 27 13
Management review system 26 16
Internal program monitoring/auditing 28 25
Customer inquiries/procurement 18 9
Chain of custody implementation 15 32
Natural heritage / reserves planning 15 22
Forest research / demonstration 13 4
Community grants and support 4 4
Utilization planning and practices 3 1
Cubbage and Moore 2008, 11 of 17 practices listed above
FSC for U.S. only; SFI for U.S. and Canada combined; SFI for landowning firms only
Certification Costs, 2007
Statistic / N (unit) SFI FSC
Median
Area / 36 (ha) 133,727 22,258
Cost / 17 ($/ha) 0.37 0.91
Mean
Area / 45 (ha) 992,675 251,392
Cost / 14 ($/ha) 4.92 3.24
Cubbage et al 2008; FSC for U.S. only; SFI for U.S. and Canada combined
Note: No statistically significant differences by system; only by land size class
Median Costs for Certification
by Ownership Size ($/ha/yr)
Cubbage et al. 2008
Median Certification Costs
by Cost Component, 2007 ($/ha/yr)
Component SFI (n) FSC (n)
Total Cert. Expenses 0.37 (18) 0.91 (14)
Internal Prep. Fees 0.11 (11) 0.48 (7)
External Audit Fees 0.19 (15) 0.36 (16)
Ongoing Prep. Costs 0.15 (9) 0.46 (12)
Community Ed. 0.01 (4) 0.04 (4)
Mgt. Changes 0.02 (2) 0.06 (4)
SIC / FSC Comms. 0.02 (10) .02 (1)
Cubbage et al 2008; FSC for U.S. only; SFI for U.S. and Canada combined
Certification Costs vs. Benefits
SFI (no.) FSC (no.)
Benefits greatly exceed
costs 78
Benefits exceed costs 10 10
Benefits = costs 10 7
Costs exceed benefits 8 12
Costs greatly exceed
benefits 28
Cubbage et al 2008; FSC for U.S. only; SFI for U.S. and Canada combined
Expected & Realized Benefits of Forest Certification
Expected Benefit Actual Benefit
System / Factor SFI FSC SFI FSC
Strategic / CSR 3.9 3.6 3.5 3.4
External Signaling 4.2 3.9 3.7 3.8
Market Share / Prices 3.2 3.7 2.0 1.9
Internal Mgt, Records 3.3 3.0 3.7 3.3
Cubbage et al 2008; FSC for U.S. only; SFI for U.S. and Canada combined
Ranking: 1=not important; 2=somewhat important; 3-neutral; 4=important; 5=very important
Has Certification Achieved Objectives?
SFI (no.) FSC (no.)
Definitely yes 12 17
Probably yes 23 17
Uncertain 5 4
Probably not 2 6
Definitely not 0 7
Cubbage et al. 2008, FSC for U.S. only; SFI for U.S. and Canada combined
Will Organization Maintain Certification?
SFI (no.) FSC (no.)
Definitely yes 18 14
Probably yes 20 22
Uncertain 312
Probably not 13
Definitely not 01
Cubbage et al. 2008, FSC for U.S. only; SFI for U.S. and Canada combined
Discussion and Conclusions
Summary - Certification Extent
Certification area, 2008
¾322 million ha; 8% of forests
¾Greater share of closed forests and plantations
¾U.S.A.: about 40 million ha; 14% of forests
PEFC largest / umbrella system
¾SFI - 61 million ha; 22 million in U.S
¾Europe – 57 million ha
¾CSA – 76 million ha
FSC 104 million ha; 10 million ha in U.S.A.
Summary - Methods Recap
Survey of certified forest managers
¾All SFI program participants – Canada & U.S
¾All FSC forest management certificate holders – U.S.
Assessed changes in forest management
¾Forest management
¾Social and legal
¾Economic and system
Costs by system
And personnel, opinions, satisfaction
~55% return rates
Representative sample of firm sizes
Conclusions - Many Management Changes:
Forest Certification Improves Practices
Substantial number of management, social, and system
changes with certification
Average of about 13-14 changes in all management
practices per company, both systems
¾SFI – changes before certification or to maintain cert
¾FSC – prior changes & continuing action requirements
¾Fairly similar sets of changes with both SFI and FSC
¾FSC: more forest management, social changes
¾SFI: more economic / system changes
SFI Procurement
¾Same proportions as Forest Management owners
¾Fewer total changes, fewer forest mgt changes
Comparative Management Changes
SFI – more changes in:
¾Management: green up standards, BMP use & monitoring,
determining clearcut size
¾Social:few
¾Economic/system: SIC participation, logger training,
management review
FSC – more changes in:
¾Management: sustained yield, special sites & reserves,
forest management plans, chemicals, soil protection, and
eliminating GMOs
¾Social: stakeholder meetings, release of management
plan, consulting with communities
¾Economic/system: legal planning and record keeping
Costs
Much higher costs for small owners; less for large
Median much less than $1 / ac / yr, but wide range
SFI average less, but includes large owners in
Canada
No significant differences in costs between systems
when ownership size accounted for
Benefits vs. Costs
¾Opinions distributed widely
¾Somewhat less favorable perceptions for FSC
¾But most owners in both systems will re-certify
Anticipated and Realized Satisfaction
Strategic / Corporate Social Responsibilty:
¾Moderate expectations
¾realized ~ anticipated
External Signaling
¾high expectations
¾realized ~< anticipated
Market share / prices
¾low to moderate expectations
¾realized << anticipated
Internal management, records
¾low expectations
¾realized >> anticipated
Conclusions: Impacts
Certification has changed forest, social, and
economic practices
¾For SFI and FSC
¾More economic for SFI
¾More environmental and social for FSC
Similar results to prior Latin America surveys
¾Where total changes were about 3 times CARs
Most organizations feel certification has achieved
their objective
And will maintain certification in the future
Enhancing sustainable forest management
Impacts and Costs of Forest Certification:
A Survey of SFI and FSC in North America
Fred Cubbage and Susan Moore
Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
fred_cubbage@ncsu.edu & susan_more@ncsu.edu
Presented at:
2008 Sustainable Forestry Initiative Meeting
Minneapolis, MN
23 September 2008
SFI_CERT_2008_V10
Argentina and Chile
FSC and CertFor Impact Evaluation
Co-PIs
¾Pablo Yapura (FSC/Universidad de la Plata, Argentina)
¾Diana Diaz (INTA, Argentina)
¾Francis Dube (Universidad de Concepción)
Firm characteristics
¾Argentina – 220 ha to 22,000 ha
¾Chile – 144,000 ha to 1.1 million ha
¾Private, sector leaders in conservation and social
reputation
¾Mostly exporters, but not all of production
Process
¾Personal interviews and contacts
¾Firm review and corrections
Argentina and Chile
Major Changes with Certification
Practices with “Yes” Reply, Changes Made Argentina
FSC (n=6) Chile – FSC &
CertFor (n=3)
Forest management plan 6 2
Legal planning and record keeping 6 2
Logger / supplier training 6 3
Chemical safety, use, storage 5 3
Prevention of exotic invasives 5 2
Consulting with communities 5 3
Social impact analyses 5 2
Outreach and extension 5 3
Public relations / education 5 3
Internal program monitoring / auditing 5 2
Natural heritage planning reserves 5 3
Cubbage, Diaz, Yapura, & Dube 2008
Argentina and Chile
Forestry sector leaders in practices
Few new employees
Small changes in job description or appointment
Lots of preparation, consultant studies
But more a change in the way of thinking and doing business
than the work performed once adopted
Significant number of conditions each year, 2-6; 9 total
Average of 27 total changes made by firms
Has improved worker conditions, continuous improvement,
the environment
Still needs price benefits, stronger market structure to
improve prices, more recognition for certified products in
domestic markets
