Labelling and certification
Convergence between certification and verification in the drive to legality assurance: assessing the pros and cons
Should the definition of legal timber be regulated by the state or through voluntary initiatives?
Authors:
D. Brown; N. Bird
Publisher:
VERIFOR, 2007
This brief highlights two different approaches to regulating trade in timber resources: certification and verification. This paper considers the pros and cons of the convergence of these two concepts, and identifies some of the conditions that need to be met if the two instruments are to function in a mutually supportive way.
The paper discusses the following:
- legality in certificaion schemes
- verification as a new policy initiative
- legality assurance vs. Sustainability
- pros and cons of convergence.
Certification is characterised a voluntary private initiative which aims to incorporate a broad concept of sustainable forest management. Verification on the other hand is a government initiative which focuses on high risk countries and aims to achieve a narrower definitaion of legal compliance.
The paper highlights a number of policy conclusions:
- the growing policy focus on the verification of legal timber is likely to expose the certification movement to increased scrutiny over its interpretations of legal compliance
- there is a risk of conflicts of interest developing in agencies seeking to provide both certification and verification services
- despite its limitations, certification may have much to teach the verification movement, particularly in the areas of systems governance and accreditation of suppliers
- there is a case for treating the two movements as having different aims which should not be confounded. There are, however, good reasons to want to see both of them advance in a mutually supportive way, provided certain governance and equity conditions can be met
- a critical requirement is that certification should not pre-empt the policy processes associated with the definition of legal timber - particularly the efforts that are underway by many producer states to refine the legality standards.
