Topic 5: Forest certification and rural livelihoods  
          
          
                             
                             
                             
         Certification of non-timber forest 
         products: Limitations and 
         implications of a market-based 
         conservation tool  
          
          
          
          
          
         Alan Pierce 
         Patricia Shanley 
         Sarah Laird  
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
         Paper presented at  
         The International Conference on  
         Rural Livelihoods, Forests and Biodiversity 
         19-23 May 2003, Bonn, Germany  
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             Certification of non-timber forest products: 
             Limitations and implications of a market-based 
             conservation tool  
              
              
              
             Alan Pierce 
             Patricia Shanley 
             Sarah Laird  
              
              
              
             SUMMARY 
             Non-timber forest products (NTFPs) play an important role in rural livelihoods worldwide and recent 
             efforts to certify NTFPs raise questions about the impact of this market based tool on local producers 
             and communities.  Drawing from case studies in Latin America, we find that there are many 
             impediments to the successful implementation of NTFP certification.  These impediments range from 
             unorganized and powerless laborers to basic difficulties in commercializing NTFPs to undeveloped 
             demand for certified products among businesses and consumers.  However, the process of creating 
             NTFP certification standards may create positive ripple effects among producers, traders, companies 
             and policy makers by planting the seeds for a vision of more socially and environmentally responsible 
             management of NTFP resources.  We conclude that the ability of certification to indirectly leverage 
             wider social change may prove to be of greater lasting impact to rural livelihoods and NTFP 
             management than mere labeling and marketing. 
              
             2  
        INTRODUCTION 
        Hunting and gathering are two of the oldest and most basic relationships between 
        humans and the natural world.  Contrary to popular perception, hunting and gathering 
        continue to be widely pursued in rural areas across the globe, particularly within 
        forested ecosystems that provide food, fibers and medicine for subsistence use and for 
        trade.  According to the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA, 1992), 
        non-timber forest products (NTFPs) “are an integral part of the livelihood of the 500 
        million people who live in or near tropical forests.”  While this number is likely a low 
        estimate, and does not even reflect the large number of temperate and boreal forest 
        users, it nonetheless provides a good indication of the scale and importance that forest 
        resources play in the lives of rural people. 
        Over the past two decades, NTFPs have received significant attention for their 
        potential to conserve forests, particularly tropical forests, and, through economic 
        development initiatives, enhance rural livelihoods.  Promoting NTFP 
        commercialization as a conservation and rural development tool has proven to be 
        controversial, however.  Researchers have questioned the value of creating NTFP 
        extractive reserves (Browder, 1992), the viability of marketing rainforest products 
        (Dove, 1994; Crook and Clapp, 1998; Southgate, 1998), and the wisdom of 
        incorporating NTFPs into rural development strategies (Emery, 1998).  Homma 
        (1992) concluded that NTFPs form an unstable economic base for rural people and 
        theorized that NTFP collection pressures bring about one of two fates: over-
        exploitation and plant population decline, or replacement by systems that offer 
        cheaper economies of scale, principally domestication or synthetic substitution. 
        Homma’s hypothesis is not valid when applied to local and subsistence use of NTFPs, 
        however it points to some of the fundamental difficulties in NTFP commercialization, 
        and the incorporation of NTFPs into rural development schemes. 
        Recently, NGOs and donors have promoted green certification as a market-based tool 
        to support environmentally sensitive production practices in the forest industry.  
        Hundreds of millions of hectares of forests have been certified worldwide for timber 
        production, and groups are now certifying NTFPs.  Most western consumers are 
        already familiar with certification at some level through exposure to organic foods, 
        fair trade products, electronic products bearing the Underwriter’s Laboratories seal in 
        the U.S. or government food inspection programs. Certification involves audits of 
        merchandise to insure that production and handling processes meet specific standards.  
        Those products that meet certification standards can be labeled in the marketplace, 
        thereby allowing companies to position their products as distinct from a competitor’s 
        product and giving consumers a chance to purchase goods that adhere to specific 
        environmental, social or sanitary standards.  
        A range of certification systems can be applied to NTFPs. Some of the most widely 
        available systems offering consumer labeling of NTFPs include sustainable forest 
        management by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), fair trade by the Fair Trade 
        Labelling Organizations (FLO) and organic production by the International Federation 
        of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM). Each of these certification systems has 
        developed its own standards that concentrate on different aspects of NTFP production 
        and trade. Yet innovative efforts exist to integrate different systems are also underway 
        (see www.isealalliance.org). For example, joint assessments to provide multiple labels 
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                wherein assessors from different systems cooperatively implement an audit using the 
                guidelines from their respective systems. This paper focuses on lessons from the 
                Forest Stewardship Council, a certification system which includes environmental, 
                social and economic standards for forest management. 
                In this paper, we describe some of the specific conditions that are necessary for 
                certification to provide benefits for conservation and rural livelihoods. We do not 
                attempt a systematic evaluation of the complex topic of NTFP certification but rather 
                focus on fundamental social, ecological and economic impediments to NTFP 
                certification and alternative uses of the tool for broader benefit. First, we address the 
                question: To what extent are market based conservation incentives, specifically 
                certification, inherently contradictory to NTFP collection and smallholder 
                management systems? We do this by examining attempts to certify a variety of 
                products by different producer groups. NTFP certification has only been available 
                under the FSC system for half a decade and there are relatively few case studies from 
                which to draw lessons. As the concept is applied over time, some of the hurdles that 
                case studies illustrate may be resolved. Other, inherent contradictions between NTFPs 
                and certification are likely to remain. We believe that these contradictions are often 
                ignored and call for increased consideration by donors, researchers and the 
                conservation community.  
                Secondly, we ask: What are the broader implications and potential utility of standards 
                and guidelines beyond certification?   Because NTFP certification is likely to apply 
                only in specific circumstances, it is important to build on the substantial foundation 
                that has been invested in developing the tool to assess its more subtle, indirect 
                benefits. Such benefits may include, increased industry accountability toward 
                sustainable sourcing, increased harvester awareness regarding the need for a long-
                term product supply and consumer awareness of conservation issues involved in 
                buying responsibly. It is also important to consider use of the concept of standards and 
                guidelines not only toward acquiring a seal, but also toward reaching the goal of 
                responsible forest management through spin-off tools such as harvester training 
                curricula, producer guidelines, industry association standards, and templates for 
                proposed legislative action.  
                We first describe fundamental impediments and opportunities in certification, grouped 
                by five principal themes: the products themselves, the rural context, the producers, the 
                certification system and finally, market and financial considerations for producers. 
                We then briefly discuss the implications of certification and standards in the broader 
                context of conservation and rural livelihoods. In closing, we call for a more realistic 
                assessment of the role that certification can play in NTFP and livelihood issues and 
                we urge for better integration between standard setting agencies.  
                METHODS 
                This paper draws on a series of research projects that sought to examine the ways 
                NTFP certification and market-based tools to promote social and environmental 
                change might work in practice. The first (1998-2000), explored the feasibility of 
                NTFP certification, and involved drafting generic guidelines and indicators for NTFP 
                certification, developing verifiers by plant class or part, and then field-testing at three 
                sites – Brazil (Palm hearts [Euterpe oleraceae]), Bolivia (Brazil nuts [Bertholletia 
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