Multi-Stakeholder Approach to Setting the Requirements for Sustainable Forest Management Certification Scheme

Abstract

The holistic approach to sustainable forest management provides the improvement of a variety of forest ecosystem services such as enhanced wildlife diversity, improved water quality, carbon sequestration, etc. All these aspects need to be considered by forest certification schemes when setting criteria and requirements for forest owners to provide sustainable timber production while enhancing nature management, the local economy and biodiversity. Therefore, a decision-making process in setting certification criteria shall be knowledge based and transparent, with an open and multi-stakeholder participation. The main aim of this study is to examine the latest PEFC national sustainable forest management standard revision process in the Slovak Republic from the viewpoint of stakeholder participation. To assess the success and effectiveness of the process the emphasis is on the evaluation of the level of stakeholder participation, their expectations and contribution to the process as well as barriers and opportunities for participation. Additionally, trust among participating stakeholders, conflict resolution and overall satisfaction with the results achieved is examined. The results revealed that the stakeholders involved in the revision process are well informed about the PEFC certification in Slovakia, understand its importance for sustainable forest management processes, and are fully aware of their roles in the participatory process linking them with the roles of their organizations. Results also indicate that formal rules of consensus-based participation and informal aspects such as voluntary self-exclusion, education of the participants contributed to the improvement of trust between the participants, overall satisfaction and the perception of the revision process as effective. As the importance of participation in forest certification for forestry policy also lies in learning processes, revealed relations can be a useful benchmark for other countries with lacking or inadequate culture of participation and their mutual comparison.

Keywords: Forest certification, Standard setting, Stakeholders, Participation, Consensus