Reasons for Choosing Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and Sustainable Green Ecosystem Council (SGEC) Schemes and the Effects of Certification Acquisition by Forestry Enterprises in Japan

Abstract

Abstract:The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and the Sustainable Green Ecosystem Council (SGEC) are deployed as forest certification schemes in Japan. This study aimed to identify the reasons that enterprises choose the FSC or the SGEC scheme and the effects of certification. A questionnaire survey was conducted on 126 forestry enterprises with certification as of May 2014. The results of questionnaire tabulation found different reasons for choosing FSC (high reliability of the international certification system) or SGEC (examination costs and difficulty of acquisition, certification acquisition by neighboring enterprises in the region, and guidance and information from familiar people and enterprises). The results suggest that choosing FSC or SGEC depended on international or domestic emphasis, reliability, cost, and difficulty of acquisition. Both schemes reportedly improved management planning, environmental impact assessments, and monitoring, but increased timber value was not reported. Japanese consumers' understanding of forest certification should be enhanced and attention to forest management certification in Japan should increase because the SGEC now offers international certification. If SGEC certification is easier to obtain than FSC certification, and FSC is relatively expensive, the SGEC forest area should continue to expand.

Contribution of Forest Stewardship Council Certification to Sustainable Forest Management of State Forests in Selected Southeast European Countries

“…The interviewed professionals suggested that forest certification has multiple effects that go beyond SFM of state forests. The same findings were found worldwide [8,10,26,27,29]. It is evident that instead of economic effects, FSC certification in selected SEE countries provides less measurable but equally important effects, such as improvements in public forest companies' image and better relations with customers, the general public and local communities.…”

“…Several studies analysed FSC's advantages and success or limitations and barriers [14][15][16][17], legitimacy [18], forest governance improvements [12,19,20], accountability [21], effectiveness [22], as well as consumers and private forest owners' perceptions and demands [7,[23][24][25]. Moreover, studies have also analysed the reasons why forest companies are changing their practices to comply with FSC standards [7] and investigated the reasons for selecting a particular forest certification scheme [26]. However, others have focused on the impacts of FSC forest certification on FM [27], business performance [9,20,[27][28][29][30][31] and ecosystem services [32][33][34] or studied the differences in FM practices between certified and non-certified forests [35].…”

Assessment of the Profitability of Environmental Activities in Forestry

“…A significant role in the sustainable development of forestry is played by the Forest Stewardship Council and the Sustainable Green Ecosystem Council through the proposed scheme of the international forest certification. Cooperation with such organizations should be increased to ensure reliable monitoring of forest use in countries around the world [2,3]. It is clear that the proposed certification scheme requires the usage of appropriate methodological accounting tools.…”

Application of an Adaptive Forest Management Simulation Model Based on Zoning in a Man-Made Forest

“…A universally-accepted scheme for sustainable forest management is forest certification, which has the potential to address certain environmental issues by establishing rules for sustainable management of forests, thus reducing the risks arising from environmental problems [1]. Previous studies on forest certification in Japan and Asia have indicated that the most common corrective action requests in terms of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) principles or Sustainable Green Ecosystem Council (SGEC) standards are the following: management planning, environmental impact assessments, and monitoring [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. Thus, mid-and long-term forest management planning is important for sustainable forest management.…”