International Marketing Practices

Sustainability Issues Affecting the Trade of Forest Products There are several sustainability concerns surrounding the forest products industry, particularly deforestation and illegal logging. As a result, a variety of government entities, industry representatives, and other organizations have taken several measures to address these concerns, including the creation of voluntary forest certification systems and regulations aimed at restricting illegal logging. This section briefly discusses environmental certification and illegal logging regulation, as they both have significant impacts on the international trade of forest products. International Standards for Phytosanitary Measures are also discussed as measures to mitigate the global spread of invasive pests. Forest Certification Voluntary forest certification programs were created as a market-driven mechanism to ensure forests are sustainably managed from an environmental, economic, and social point of view. Forest certification programs are often implemented to incentivize producers to participate in sustainable practices through assumed consumer valuation and market demand for products sourced in an environmentally responsible manner. There are a number of forest certification programs with both national and international reach. The most relevant for international trade include the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) [49], the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) [50], and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) [51]. The SFI is a predominantly American standard, while both the FSC and PEFC have international reach. The FSC was officially born in 1994 [49], becoming the first forest certification system with global reach. Today, the FSC operates in over 70 countries. The PEFC is an “umbrella” organization that endorses national certification systems, such as the SFI and the Canadian Standards Association (CSA). There were approximately 439 million hectares (ha) of certified forestland globally, equating to roughly 11% of total forest area, in 2015 (Table 11) [52]. By mid-2017, the FSC and PEFC organizations reported a certified forest area of 199 and 304 million ha, respectively. Accounting for areas with double certification of about 71 million ha, the total forest area under certification was 431.4 million ha in mid-2017 [53]. A large percentage of forests in North America and Western Europe are certified under some sort of program (Table 11). Approximately 90% of all certified global forestland is located in the Northern Hemisphere, and only approximately 2% of tropical forests are certified [54]. In fact, the top five countries in PEFC- or FSC- certified area are located in North America and Europe (including Russia), while Western Europe had the largest proportion of its forestland under certification (65%) in 2015 (Table 11).

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