Abstract
We assess the ability of Cashore, Auld, and Newsom's theoretical framework on “Nonstate Market-Driven” (NSMD) governance to explain the emergence of and support for forest certification in Finland. In contrast to Sweden's experience, the environmental group-initiated international forest certification program, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), failed to gain significant support. Instead, the commercial forest sector created and adopted the Finnish Forest Certification Program, which domestic and international environmental groups ultimately rejected as inadequate. The NSMD framework must better incorporate two key findings. First, the dependence of international markets on the targeted country's forest products can shape domestic certification choices. We found that the largely non-substitutable qualities of Finnish paper products gave the domestic sector greater leeway in responding to international pressures. Second, whether the FSC is being championed primarily to influence a country's domestic forestry debates or indirectly as a lever with which to improve forest practices elsewhere appears to permeate the forest sector's overall receptiveness to the FSC.
Author notes
Benjamin Cashore ([email protected]) is an associate professor of environmental governance at Yale University's School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. He is director of the Yale Program on Forest Policy and Governance and is courtesy joint appointed in Yale's Department of Political Science. His major research interests include the emergence of private authority, its intersection with traditional governmental regulatory processes, and the role of firms, non-state actors, and governments in shaping these trends. He co-authored (with Graeme Auld and Deanna Newsom) the book Governing Through Markets: Forest Certification and the Emergence of Non-state Authority (2004), which was awarded the International Studies Association's 2005 Harold and Margaret Sprout Award for the best book on international environmental policy and politics.
Elizabeth Egan ([email protected]) contributed to the article in this issue of Global Environmental Politics as a Master's student at Yale University's School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. She is currently an ecosystem services specialist in the Office of the Chief, US Forest Service, and serves on the Society of American Foresters (SAF) World Forestry Committee.
Graeme Auld ([email protected]) is a Ph.D. candidate at Yale University's School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. His recent publications include “Choosing How to be Green: An Examination of Domtar Inc.'s Approach to Forest Certification,” forthcoming in the Journal of Strategic Management Education; and Governing Through Markets: Forest Certification and the Emergence of Non-State Authority (with Benjamin Cashore and Deanna Newsom) published by Yale University Press in 2004. His current research examines variation in the global development of market-based certification programs across and within sectors.
Deanna Newsom ([email protected]) is a specialist in forest certification and sustainable forest management with a research focus on certification's impacts and systems. She has worked for the Rainforest Alliance through its office in Richmond, Vermont since 2001, working in the TREES Program, a sister to the Forest Stewardship Council–accredited SmartWood certification program. She co-authored (with Benjamin Cashore and Graeme Auld) Governing Through Markets: Forest Certification and the Emergence of Non-state Authority (2004), which was awarded the International Studies Association's 2005 Harold and Margaret Sprout Award for the best book on international environmental policy and politics. She has published articles in Forest Policy and Economics and Business and Politics as well as chapters in edited books from CAB International and Transaction Press.
An earlier version of this paper was presented to the International Studies Association Conference, Honolulu, Hawaii, March 2–6, 2005. We are grateful to Kate O'Neill, Lars Gulbrandsen, Marcus Walsh, Eric Hansen, Anna Koivisto, and four anonymous reviewers for comments on an earlier version and to Radhika Dave for valuable research assistance. We are grateful to Prof. Pasi Puttonen and Prof. Heikki Juslin, Faculty of Forestry, University of Helsinki for extensive cooperation and assistance. This paper benefits from, and refers to, Juslin's unpublished writing on the Finnish forest certification experience. Cashore also thanks Steven Bernstein, whose work on a related project has pushed his thinking in important directions. Finally, we thank the range of forestry stakeholders in Finland who took time to be interviewed for this project. We, alone, are responsible for any factual or analytical errors. We gratefully acknowledge support from the USDA's National Research Initiative, the Ford and Merck foundations, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and the Doris Duke Charitable trust.