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Reconciling certification and intact forest landscape conservation

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Abstract

In 2014, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) added a new criterion to its principles that requires protection of intact forest landscapes (IFLs). An IFL is an extensive area of forest that lacks roads and other signs of human activity as detected through remote sensing. In the Congo basin, our analysis of road networks in formally approved concessionary logging areas revealed greater loss of IFL in certified than in noncertified concessions. In areas of informal (i.e., nonregulated) extraction, road networks are known to be less detectable by remote sensing. Under the current definition of IFL, companies certified under FSC standards are likely to be penalized relative to the noncertified as well as the informal logging sector on account of their planned road networks, despite an otherwise better standard of forest management. This could ultimately undermine certification and its wider adoption, with implications for the future of sustainable forest management.

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Acknowledgements

Fritz Kleinschroth is funded by the DAFNE project of the European Union H2020 programme (Grant Number 690268). Sylvie Gourlet-Fleury, Alain Karsenty, and John R. Healey provided helpful discussion. Diana Franco Gil kindly helped with Fig. 1. The authors thank Peter Ellis and three anonymous reviewers for their useful comments on an earlier version of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ecosystem Management, Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zurich, Universitätstrasse 16, 8092, Zurich, Switzerland

    Fritz Kleinschroth & Jaboury Ghazoul

  2. Department of Environmental Systems Science, Institute of Terrestrial Ecosystems, ETH Zurich, Universitätstrasse 16, 8092, Zurich, Switzerland

    Claude Garcia

  3. CIRAD, UPR Forêts et Sociétés, 8092, Zurich, Switzerland

    Claude Garcia

  4. Prince Bernhard Chair of International Nature Conservation, Ecology and Biodiversity, Department of Biology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Jaboury Ghazoul

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  1. Fritz Kleinschroth
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Correspondence to Fritz Kleinschroth.

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Kleinschroth, F., Garcia, C. & Ghazoul, J. Reconciling certification and intact forest landscape conservation. Ambio 48, 153–159 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-018-1063-6

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