The Forest Sector in the Congo Basin countries: 20 years of AFD intervention AFD w Ex post Evaluation
The future of certification
However, certification also has its limitations. Companies have realized that they are not yet reaping significant certification gains, in terms of markets, although certification has enabled them to maintain or increase some market shares in Northern Europe. However, the added value is not guaranteed. Furthermore, certification is only a lever to companies which directly target European markets, which is not the case for those eyeing domestic markets or some Asian markets (subject to new requirements on the origin of re-exported timber). Today, there are doubts on the involvement of large groups in future management efforts. There are two scenarios on the horizon. According to some opinions, compliance with international standards (FLEGT) and market pressure will spur the large groups to increase their market shares on the European market. In this way, they will foster sound forest management in their concessions and possibly in areas held by other concessionaires with whom they would come to an agreement. Others, however, believe that the large groups are unlikely to pursue their efforts, as they feel they have so far been short-changed as a result of differential pricing. Furthermore, the FLEGT process opens the same European markets to companies in compliance with minimum FLEGT standards. This might render certification less relevant for forest companies as, (i) European markets which require certified timber today, may be satisfied with FLEGT certified timber in the future and, (ii) for the consumer, the proliferation of labels and certificates could divert their interest because of an absence of benchmarking, expecially since (iii) compliance with FLEGT standards entails less costs compared to FSC certification. While certification is a key lever of forest management, its future remains uncertain. A decline in the coming years will certainly impact negatively on FMPs. What is more, some of these large groups have expressed clear concerns about the Congo Basin forests. The FMP standard came too late, after most forests had come under intensive logging and it will be difficult to remedy the excessive logging of the first cuts. This may explain the abandonment of some concessions and the fact that in Cameroon, for instance, no new company has embarked on the FSC certification process.
Š AFD / May 2012 117