Lars H. Gulbrandsen

Overlapping Public and Private Governance: Can Forest Certification Fill the Gaps in the Global Forest Regime?

This article investigates whether forest certification (eco-labeling) is likely to rectify certain omissions in the current global forest regime. Following an examination of the achievements and shortcomings of the forest regime to date, I argue that gaps could be filled by including a broad range of stakeholders in certification standards development; promoting strong environmental and social performance standards in forestry; providing effective control mechanisms; securing producer participation; and penetrating markets. Although the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) was considered initially to have the greatest potential to fill these gaps, the emergence and widespread proliferation of industry-dominated schemes have marginalized the FSC in many countries. The study shows that while forest certification would probably promote more sustainable forestry in the temperate and boreal zones than it would in the tropical zone, the ability of this tool to actually do so remains to be seen.

Transparency in Nonstate Certification: Consequences for Accountability and Legitimacy

Nonstate certification programs have formed in the past 20 years to address social and environmental problems associated with production practices in several economic sectors. These programs embody the idea that information disclosure can be a tool for NGOs, investors, governments, and consumers to support high performers and hence, advocates hope, place upward pressure on sector-wide practices. Many unanswered questions remain, however, about information disclosures practices and outcomes. We compare the use of procedural and outcome transparency in the rule-making and auditing processes of the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). We highlight key differences in how transparency relates to accountability and legitimacy of the programs. The MSC uses transparency and stakeholder consultation instrumentally, whereas the FSC treats them as ends unto themselves. This underscores the importance of considering transparency alongside other governance aspects, such as who the eligible stakeholders are and who gets decision-making power.

NGO Influence in the Implementation of the Kyoto Protocol: Compliance, Flexibility Mechanisms, and Sinks

While most scholars agree that NGOs make a difference in global environmental politics, there has been little systematic work that looks at the actual influence NGOs have on policy outcomes. This paper looks to shed some new light on the question of NGO effectiveness through an evaluation of the role played by NGOs in climate negotiations. We begin with a brief sketch of different kinds of green NGOs, along with a review of the sorts of strategies and resources they employ. Next, we look to gauge the influence that NGOs have had on recent rounds of negotiations to do with compliance, flexibility mechanisms, and appropriate crediting rules for sinks. Our analysis is based on detailed interviews with members of some of the most prominent environmental NGOs involved in climate work. Finally, we suggest, based on our findings, some means by which NGOs may look to extend their influence in the development of the climate regime. Our analysis points to the crucial need for further insider capacitythat is, NGOs are likely to have the most far-reaching influence on future climate negotiations if they foster ways to work closely and collaboratively with key negotiators and governments.

Accountability Arrangements in Non-State Standards Organizations: Instrumental Design and Imitation:

This paper analyses accountability arrangements in the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and other organizations that set standards for certification and eco-labelling. It focuses on two types of accountability that are likely to be achievable and important to non-state standards organizations: control and responsiveness. In setting a global standard based on a multi-stakeholder governance structure, FSC established a model for other certification schemes, specifically within the forestry and fisheries sectors. By creating the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), FSC-supporters exported the certification model to the fisheries sector. Industry-led forest certification schemes that were initiated to compete with FSC and offer an industry-dominated model have come to mimic procedural accountability arrangements initially established by their competitor. However, they have carefully filtered out the prescriptions that could reduce their influence in standard-setting processes. The paper argues that while certification schemes could enhance control of corporate environmental and social performance, some of the industry-dominated schemes adopt popular and fashionable accountability recipes to divert criticism of their activities instead of acting responsively to external constituents such as environmental and social groups.

The Role of Science in Environmental Governance: Competing Knowledge Producers in Swedish and Norwegian Forestry

This article explores the influence of scientific knowledge in rule-making processes to enhance environmental protection in Swedish and Norwegian forestry. It examines the mapping and protection of small reserves; the development of plans for protection of large reserves; and rule-setting in voluntary forest certification schemes. The analysis shows that Sweden has enacted more stringent environmental protection policies on all measures examined. Whereas variation in the state of knowledge about environmental protection needs does not explain these differences, variation in the access to the science-policy dialogue and in the distribution of costs and benefits in the forestry sector does help explain the differences in the stringency of Norwegian and Swedish forest policy. I conclude that the influence of knowledge depends on the process by which it is created. Although scientific information usually has little influence when strong economic counter-forces are involved in the decision-making process, this problem can be ameliorated by facilitating processes of coproduction of knowledge among scientific experts, practitioners, and decision-makers.

Explaining different approaches to voluntary standards: A study of forest certification choices in Norway and Sweden

Abstract This paper explores divergent approaches to forest certification in Sweden and Norway. While the NGO-supported Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) has five times the endorsement in Sweden than the industry-dominated Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification schemes (PEFC), virtually all commercially productive forests in Norway are certified by the PEFC-endorsed Living Forests scheme. The PEFC scheme leaves forest companies with less stringent sustainable forest management standards than the FSC, and greater leeway to apply those standards. Three explanations for the divergent approaches to forest certification are explored: public policy and government support; advocacy-group and market pressures; and industry structure. It is found that although the government in both countries facilitated and legitimized certification processes, environmental group activism and supply chain pressure were more important for certification initiatives. A group of large Swedish forest companies responded to market and advocacy group pressures by choosing the widely recognized FSC scheme. Non-industrial forest owners in both Norway and Sweden rejected this scheme due to narrower market and public exposure and their belief that environmental, social and forest company interests dominate the FSC decision-making process. While showing that states influence non-state governance projects, these findings challenge traditional conceptions of political spaces constituted by sovereignty.

BP in Azerbaijan: a test case of the potential and limits of the CSR agenda?

Abstract Azerbaijan displays some of the features of the phenomenon known as the ‘resource curse’: high revenues from extractive industries coupled with high levels of corruption, a weak system of tax collection, lack of development of other sectors of the economy apart from oil, and increasing social inequality. As the leading foreign investor in Azerbaijan and a company with a salient image on corporate social responsibility (csr), the question is what bp does to address this situation on its own behalf and that of its consortium partners. The article shows that Azerbaijan has taken a lead among ‘new’ petroleum states in promoting oil revenue transparency in recent years, not least as result of the prominent position of bp in the country, but that lack of transparency on the governments spending of oil revenues remains a major barrier to reliable oversight. As for community investments and regional development, bp operates programmes on behalf of its consortium partners that could provide models for extractive industries around the world. The article argues that, while bp has acted to establish collective goods in the csr realm for all foreign oil companies, it risks having all corporate efforts to promote social and economic development undermined by the host governments macroeconomic policies and lack of commitment to developing democratic and accountable political institutions.

The Norwegian reform of protected area management: a grand experiment with delegation of authority?

In 2009, the Norwegian Storting (Parliament) decided to embark on a reform of the governance of protected areas. The reform establishes more than 40 local management boards with extensive decision-making authority over much of Norways protected areas. The boards have management authority over clusters of national parks, protected landscapes, and nature reserves. The reform was initiated in a situation of considerable conflict regarding protected areas and where the environment to be protected was deemed threatened in over one-third of the cases. This article examines the implementation of the reform and discusses the implications for the balance between local user interests and long-term environmental interests, finding that the reform is likely to reduce conflict levels and increase the weight given to local user interests. Policy measures are suggested for strengthening long-term environmental interests and issues for further research are identified.

Internationalization of protected areas in Norway and Sweden: examining pathways of influence in similar countries

This study examines differences in how international regimes for the establishment and management of protected areas have been implemented in Norway and Sweden. We focus on regulatory and normative pathways of international influence, which mirror the distinction between legal and non-legal regimes in international environmental law. Sweden and Norway have essentially responded similarly to the regulatory regimes that apply to both countries. The more normative regimes have influenced them in different ways – primarily by strengthening traditional nature conservation norms in Sweden, and norms about sustainable use by local communities in Norway. The findings indicate that the normative pathway is important mainly as a support for domestic policies that correspond to existing national norms and discourses, and they support the proposition that a high degree of regulatory hardness contributes to increase the level and consistency of implementation.

Contested Accountability Logics in Evolving Nonstate Certification for Fisheries Sustainability

The rise of transnational nonstate certification programs has contributed to complex accountability relations surrounding efforts to hold companies accountable for their environmental and social impacts. Using the analytical lenses of internal and external accountability, we examine the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC)—a fisheries certification program—to assess how its decisions about goals, engagement of stakeholders, and accountability mechanisms have affected the controversies facing the program and how it has sought to address them. We reveal a misalignment between environmental groups and the MSC. Both seek to advance sustainable fisheries, and the market campaigns of environmental groups have supported certification. However, the MSC has provided these groups limited influence over its governance; it has responded to external demands for accountability by focusing on internal accountability, and reforming its assessment and objection procedures. Environmental groups have responded by working to decouple their campaigns from supporting the MSC. Tracing the consequences of this misalignment therefore highlights the need to assess rival processes such as market and information campaigns to understand attempts to hold nonstate certification programs to account.