Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-kw2vx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-26T19:39:38.887Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

RESEARCH ARTICLE: Institutional Change and Sustainable Forestry: The Development and Struggles of Forest Certification in Finland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 May 2008

Keith Mars  and
David Ostermeier
Keith Mars
Affiliation:
Department of Forestry, Wildlife, and Fisheries, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee
David Ostermeier*
Affiliation:
Department of Forestry, Wildlife, and Fisheries, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee
*
Address correspondence to: David Ostermeier, University of Tennessee, 274 Ellington Plant Science Building, Knoxville, TN 37996; (e-mail)[email protected]
Get access

Abstract

Forest certification has quickly emerged as a prominent non-governmental policy approach to forest management, where market and civic stakeholders play increasingly important roles in new institutional development. In Finland, this development has been characterized by an adversarial and politicized environment between entrenched interest groups competing for decision-making authority in forestry governance. In this article, we discuss key distinctions between the two rival certification schemes, Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and Finnish Forest Certification System (FFCS), and explain the factors in the development process that led to the domination of the forest landowner- and forest industry-led FFCS. A central finding is that, although an alternative to traditional governmental approaches to forest management, the dominant FFCS adopted and modified traditional rulemaking processes and institutionalized the status quo of rulemaking and rule makers that existed prior to the development of forest certification. This resulted in the elimination of new perspectives in FFCS certification development. An absence of incentives and facilitating mechanisms to build trust between old and new policy participants fostered the collapse of a new integrated policy network in Finland.

Environmental Practice 10:4–12 (2008)

Type
FEATURES
Information
Environmental Practice , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , March 2008 , pp. 4 - 12
Copyright
Copyright © National Association of Environmental Professionals 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bass, S., Balogun, P., Mayers, J., Dubois, O., Morrison, E., and Howard, B.. 1998. Institutional Change in Public Sector Forestry: A Review of the Issues. International Institute of Environment and Development, London, UK, 66 pp.Google Scholar
Bernstein, S., and Cashore, B.. 2000. Globalization, Four Paths of Internationalization and Domestic Policy Change: The Case of Eco-Forestry Policy Change in British Columbia, Canada. Canadian Journal of Political Science 33(1):67–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brunner, R. D., Stellman, T., Coe-Juell, L., Cromley, C. M., Edwards, C. M., and Tucker, D. W.. 2005. Adaptive Governance: Integrating Science, Policy, and Decision Making. Columbia University Press, New York, 368 pp.Google Scholar
Cashore, B., Auld, G., and Newsom, D.. 2004. Governing Through Markets: Forest Certification and the Emergence of Non-State Authority. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 352 pp.Google Scholar
Finnish Forest Certification System. 2001. Forest Certificates. Helsinki, Finland.Google Scholar
The Finnish Forest Research Institute. 2003. Forest Finland in Brief. Helsinki, Finland, 48 pp.Google Scholar
Finnish FSC Association. 2002. The Draft FSC Standard for Finland. Helsinki, Finland, 46 pp.Google Scholar
Fiorino, D. J. 2006. The New Environmental Regulation. The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 304 pp.Google Scholar
Fisher, R., and Ury, W.. 1981. Getting To Yes. Houghton Mifflin Company, New York.Google Scholar
Fung, A., and Wright, E. O.. 2003. Deepening Democracy: Institutional Innovations in Empowered Participatory Governance. Verso Press, New York, 324 pp.Google Scholar
Glück, P., Rayner, J., and Cashore, B.. 2005. Change in the Governance of Forest Resources. In Forests in the Global Balance—Changing Paradigms, Series, IUFRO World, 17, volume, Mery, G., Alfaro, R., Kanninen, M. and Labovikov, M., eds. Helsinki, Finland, 51–74.Google Scholar
Gulbrandsen, L. 2004. Overlapping Public and Private Governance: Can Forest Certification Fill the Gaps in the Global Forest Regime? Global Environmental Politics 4(2):75–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hajer, M., and Wagenaar, H.. 2003. Deliberative Policy Analysis: Understanding Governance in the Network Society. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 324 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hansen, E., and Juslin, H.. 1998. The Status of Forest Certification in the ECE Region. Geneva Timber and Forest Discussion Paper 14, United Nations. Geneva, Switzerland, 46 pp.Google Scholar
Hanson, M. 2005. Clues to Achieving Consensus: A Leader's Guide to Navigating Collaborative Problem Solving. Scarecrow Education, Lanham, MD, 236 pp.Google Scholar
Howlett, M., and Rayner, J.. 2006. Globalization and Governance Capacity: Explaining Divergence in National Forest Programs as Instances of “Next-Generation” Regulation in Canada and Europe. Governance 19(2):251–275.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Indufor Oy. 1998. Finnish Forest Certification System: Development Process and Elements. Helsinki, Finland, 54 pp.Google Scholar
Innes, J. E., and Booher, D. E.. 2003. Collaborative Policy Making: Governance through Dialogue. In Deliberative Policy Analysis: Understanding Governance in the Network Society, Jajer, M. A. and Wagenaar, H., eds. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 324 pp.Google Scholar
Meidinger, E., Elliott, C., and Oesten, G.. 2003. The Fundamentals of Forest Certification. In Social and Political Dimensions of Forest Certification, Meidinger, E., Elliott, C. and Oesten, G., eds. Forstbuch, Remagen-Oberwinter, Germany, 354 pp.Google Scholar
Meridian Institute. 2001. Comparative Analysis of the Forest Stewardship Council and Sustainable Forestry Initiative Certification Programs. Washington, DC, 270 pp.Google Scholar
Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. 2003. Forest Policy. Available at http://www.mmm.fi/english/forestry/policy/. Last accessed June 22, 2005.Google Scholar
Poku-Marboah, M., Juslin, H., Hansen, E., and Forsyth, K.. 2003. Forest Certification Update for the UNECE Region, Summer 2003. Geneva Timber and Forest Discussion Paper 39, United Nations. Geneva, Switzerland, 46 pp.Google Scholar
Scholz, J. T., and Stiftel, B.. 2005. Adaptive Governance and Water Conflicts. Resources for the Future, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Suchman, M. 1995. Managing Legitimacy: Strategic and Institutional Approaches. Academy of Management Review 20(3):571–610.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tanninen, T. 2004. Interview by author. E-mail communication. Chief Executive Officer, WWF-Finland, Helsinki, Finland. November 19, 2004.Google Scholar
UPM Forestry and Wood Sourcing Environmental Forestry Affairs in cooperation with WWF. 2005. Parallel Field Testing of Forest Certification Standards: A Project to Promote a Global Increase in the Use of Certified Wood. Valkeakoski, Finland, 36 pp.Google Scholar
Yrjola, T. 2002. Forest Management Guidelines and Practices in Finland, Sweden and Norway. European Forest Institute, Joensuu, Finland, 46 pp.Google Scholar