F Gale

The tropical timber trade regime

List of Tables List of Figures Acknowledgements List of Acronyms Used The Tropical Rainforest Crisis International Regimes: A Conceptual History A Neo-Gramscian Approach to International Regimes Tropical Deforestation and Rainforest Degradation The Tropical Timber Trade The International Tropical Timber Agreement, 1983 State Coalitions Contesting the Tropical Timber Trade Regime Industry and Civil Society Organizations Contesting the TTTR The Politics of Regime Creation: Normative Content Eco-Certification and Labelling as Compliance Mechanisms The ITTO Mission to Sarawak Explaining Tropical Deforestation and Rainforest Degradation Appendix Bibliography Index

Forest Certification in Developing and Transitioning Countries: Part of a Sustainable Future?

This paper examines and analyzes trends in forest in forest management in developing and transitional economies in order to broaden the reach of critical issues. Data collected on biodiversity, species decline, and deforestation reveal widespread deterioration of forest ecosystem structure and function, including the acceleration of forest exploitation as well as uncertainty about where global trends in domestic forest sectors are headed. However, two significant trends were observed: (1) the intense competition between the Forest Stewardship Council and industry-initiated certification programs; and (2) North America and Europe have the most support for and battles about forest certification. Forest certification is best understood as part of a larger ensemble of forest management institutions, which, if aligned correctly, could significantly help to improve sustainable forest management and conserve biodiversity

Economic specialization versus ecological diversification: the trade policy implications of taking the ecosystem approach seriously

Abstract The author contrasts the economic principle of specialization found in trade theory with the ecological principle of diversification that underlies the ecosystem approach to natural resource use. He argues that current ecosystem decline is a consequence of the over-extension of the principle of specialization from the factory setting to nature. When the specialization principle is applied wholeheartedly to natural systems to speed up their delivery of desired commercial products it leads to ecosystem simplification, loss of integrity and stress. This occurs, for example, in modern approaches to forest management, when clearcutting and replanting with genetically modified seeds occurs with heavy inputs of fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides. What is required is a re-balancing of the application of the principle of specialization with the principle of diversification, as occurs when forests are managed according to an ecosystem(-based) approach. This re-balancing occurs at the level of production, however, not at the level of trade. Consequently, the focus of environmental reform must be production policy, not trade policy.

The consultation dilemma in private regulatory regimes: negotiating FSC regional standards in the United States and Canada

Public policy has been infiltrated by private regimes of regulation in the past decade. Such private regimes include industry codes of conduct and voluntary certification and labelling schemes. One such scheme is the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC‐AC), an international, civil‐society‐based organization headquartered in Bonn, Germany, which promotes forest certification. To ensure that forests are well managed, FSC requires forest managers to adopt practices that conform to its ten principles and 56 associated criteria (P&Cs). Committees were established across North America in the 1990s to develop indicators for FSCs generic P&Cs adapted to specific regional circumstances. In the paper, the author describes the negotiation arrangements used to develop four FSC North American regional standards, identifying a continuum that ranges from bottom‐up to top‐down approaches. The content of each of the standards is then assessed and a systematic, but not one‐to‐one relationship between negotiation arrangements and content standards is revealed. The author concludes that top‐down negotiation arrangements gave rise to less demanding standards than did bottom‐up negotiation arrangements, that FSC needs to re‐think its unstructured approach to regional standards development and that private regulatory regimes are especially vulnerable to under‐ and over‐consultative arrangements.

Whose Norms Prevail? Policy Networks, International Organizations, and 'Sustainable Forest Management'

This article investigates the origin of international norms, arguing that one pathway is via the strategic action of sector-specific policy networks. Evidence is adduced from an examination of the contested norm of sustainable forest management (SFM). It is argued that a Canadian forestry policy network, under pressure internally and externally to demonstrate its environmental and social credentials, promoted an “economistic” SFM norm in regional negotiations known as the Montreal Process. The article outlines the policy network approach, applies it to the Canadian forest sector, and analyzes how a policy network centered in the Canadian Forest Service and the Canadian Council of Forest Ministers worked to have the networks preferred conception of SFM internationally endorsed. The article highlights the importance of investigating which social actors champion which international norms and encourages reflexive policymaking by calling into question the degree to which international norms actually reflect a genuine global consensus.

When interests trump institutions: Tasmania's forest policy network and the Bell Bay pulp mill

Environmental politics is not always the outcome of the complex interplay of interests and institutions mediated by ideas. Sometimes naked self-interest prevails and proponents manipulate environmental institutions to achieve their goals. The way in which economic interests can trump environmental ideas and institutions is illustrated by the case of the proposed Bell Bay pulp mill in Tasmania, Australia, where Gunns Limited, a global timber company, sought permission to build a multi-billion dollar bleached kraft pulp mill. To expedite planning approval, the government backed the company in its decision to quit the states environmental assessment system and put in place special legislation to deliver a sympathetic, fast-track review. While the Tasmanian case is a clear example of economic interests triumphing over environmental institutions, it is not unique. The case illustrates the limits of competitively elected government and the enduring power of closed policy networks, which are able to manipulate processes to deliver desired results.

Constructing global civil society actors: An anatomy of the environmental coalition contesting the tropical timber trade regime

(1998). Constructing global civil society actors: An anatomy of the environmental coalition contesting the tropical timber trade regime. Global Society: Vol. 12, No. 3, pp. 343-361.

Trading in the future: British Columbia's forest products compromise

The authors examine the commodity-oriented nature of the British Columbia (BC) forest industry in the context of domestic policy changes and globalization. An analysis of primary data on the volume and value of wood products highlights the degree to which BC firms depend on the export of four products (softwood lumber, pulp, newsprint, and paper) for sale in three markets (United States, Europe, and Japan). This commodity-oriented industrial approach has been negatively affected by allowable annual cut (AAC) reductions in BC consequent upon “falldown,” increased stumpage rates, the Forest Practices Code, and the Protected Areas Strategy. BCs forest sector is under threat also from lower-cost companies benefiting from trade liberalization, national and regional forest industry development policies, lower production costs, and technological innovation. The report concludes that BCs commodity-oriented forest industry will be unable to remain globally competitive as a result of increasing costs within BC and decreasing costs elsewhere.

Australian forest governance: a comparison of two certification schemes

Conflict over how forests should be managed has been a perennial feature of Australian environmental policy. In the early 2000s, these conflicts spilled over into a ‘certification war’ between two international forest certification standards – the Australian Forestry Standard, championed by industry and government, and the Forest Stewardship Council, championed by environmental civil society organisations. A key issue at stake in Australias certification war is how similar or different the two schemes are. Building on the extensive literature on ‘new governance’, this article undertakes a systematic comparative analysis of the two schemes utilising a three-dimensional governance framework. The comparison reveals significant differences in the political, institutional and regulatory arrangements employed by each scheme.

Models of Community Forestry

Community forestry has become a much-discussed alternative to more conventional private and public approaches to forest management in recent years. While many countries are experimenting with community forestry, there is little consensus on what the term actually embraces. Theories and practices that are labelled “community forestry” cover a wide range of, at times, quite disparate ideas and both will benefit from greater conceptual clarity. Drawing on examples from North America, the article presents an analysis of the concept of community forestry, distilling a small number of practically applicable models out of a much larger number of analytically possible types. This analysis is particularly relevant in the Australian context where community forestry is as yet relatively unexamined and will prove useful in guiding theorists and practitioners in considering which approach is most suitable in a given set of circumstances.