International Marketing Practices

Table 11. Forest area under certification [54-56].

Certified forest area (million ha)

% of forestland under certification

Region

2006 157.7 78.9 13.0

2010 199.8 85.0 29.9 11.6

2015 217.3 109.6 62.9 12.5

2006 33.5% 50.7% 1.4% 3.3% 0.3% 1.1%%

2010 32.6% 51.2% 3.6% 5.6% 1.2% 1.6% 1.5% 8.8%

2015 35.4% 65.2% 7.5% 6.5% 1.0% 1.8% 2.2% 11.0%

North America Western Europe

CIS*

Oceania

6.4 2.1

Africa

7.3

6.5

Latin America

11.1

14.4

17.1 13.1

Asia Total

1.1

8.6

0.2% 6.8%

270.3

356.6

439.0

* CIS = Commonwealth of Independent States (i.e., former Soviet Republics)

Forest certification systems are accompanied by a labeling and tracing system, known as chain-of-custody (COC) certification. This includes all the processes and documentation used to monitor the material as it moves through the supply chain and ensures that the claims made about the origin of a wood raw material are still valid when they reach the final customer [57]. By December 2018, FSC reported 35,772 COC certificates in 123 countries, while the PEFC reported 11,466 COC certificates in 71 countries. The demand for and use of products with raw materials sourced from sustainably managed forests is increasing. In 2016 the amount of roundwood certified by FSC and PEFC was estimated at 689 million m 3 , which represents 38% of the total industrial roundwood production [58]. The impacts of forest certification on global trade of wood products can be grouped into roughly three categories: market access, demand growth, and consumer willingness to pay a premium for certified products [59]. Based on the growth of COC certificates, there appears to be a growing niche for certified products. The number of FSC COC certificates has tripled from 11,847 to 35,772 between 2008 and 2018, with the greatest growth in Asia (19% average annual growth rate), Latin America and the Caribbean (15%), and Europe (13%). Surprisingly the number of COC certifications in North America has fallen since 2014, when there were 4,012 certificates, to 3,239 in 2018 (Figure 4). The total number of certificates for the PEFC system by December 2018 was 11,466, with 82% in Europe, 12% in Asia, and 4% in North America [50].

20