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Anthropogenic Tropical Forests pp 543–562Cite as

Certifying Borneo’s Forest Landscape: Implementation Processes of Forest Certification in Sarawak

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Part of the book series: Advances in Asian Human-Environmental Research ((AAHER))

Abstract

Sarawak has a history of imposing political constraints on natural resource governance. Forest certification is expected to bring important changes to forestry in Sarawak, heralding a new era of forest management. However, the effects of a new environmental regulatory system have yet to be adequately examined, particularly the social consequences of certification which vary depending on the standards employed, audit procedures and the levels of stakeholder participation. This chapter examines experiences to date with forest certification in Malaysia, specifically certification by the Malaysian Timber Certification Council (MTCC) in Sarawak, to investigate the effects of certification on both forest management and rural communities. It is therefore important to focus attention on issues related to both indigenous peoples’ land and natural resources use. The example of Malaysia and the divergent experiences in different states illustrates that the situation on the ground can vary greatly, even with the same forest certification scheme and within the same country.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The FSC was established by interested business representatives, social groups and environmental organisations to improve forest management as environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial and economically viable (Romero et al. 2013).

  2. 2.

    The FSC P&C are global standards of forest management that apply to all FSC-certified forests in the world. For the purposes of this chapter, the most relevant principles are principle 1: compliance with all applicable laws and international treaties; principle 2: tenure and use rights and responsibilities; principle 3: recognition and respect of indigenous peoples’ rights ; and principle 4: maintenance or enhancement of the long-term social and economic wellbeing of forest workers and local communities and respect of workers’ rights. For this chapter, the FSC P&C are FSC-STD-01-001 V4-0 since the new V5-2 has not yet been implemented on the ground.

  3. 3.

    Formerly known as the National Timber Certification Council (NTCC), which was established in 1998 (Malaysiakini 2001).

  4. 4.

    The FSC does not directly certify, but sets credible standards. Certification bodies that are accredited can be found online at the Accreditation Services International website (ASI 2018). SGS is a certification body that conducts audits, with headquarters in Switzerland. The SGS Qualifor is a forest certification programme accredited by Accreditation Services International. The regional branch, SGS-Malaysia, also conducts MTCC certifications and other certification audits.

  5. 5.

    The National Forestry Council coordinates the work of the forestry department of each state of peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak and considers the direction of the national forestry policy.

  6. 6.

    Members of labour groups from the timber industry and the Malay Forest Officers Union, West Malaysia, replaced WWF-Malaysia on the board of trustees.

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Acknowledgements

We thank all the stakeholders who participated in this research. We would like to thank Dr Christine Padoch and Dr Masahiro Ichikawa for comments on earlier versions of this chapter. The research was supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, Center for Southeast Asian Studies at Kyoto University, the ASEAN Research Platform and the government of Japan’s contribution to the Centre for International Forestry Research. We are grateful to editors for their feedback.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan

    Daisuke Naito

  2. Center for International Forestry Research, Bogor, Indonesia

    Daisuke Naito

  3. Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan

    Noboru Ishikawa

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  1. Daisuke Naito
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  2. Noboru Ishikawa
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Correspondence to Daisuke Naito .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan

    Noboru Ishikawa

  2. Graduate School of Literature and Human Sciences, Osaka City University, Osaka, Japan

    Ryoji Soda

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Naito, D., Ishikawa, N. (2020). Certifying Borneo’s Forest Landscape: Implementation Processes of Forest Certification in Sarawak. In: Ishikawa, N., Soda, R. (eds) Anthropogenic Tropical Forests. Advances in Asian Human-Environmental Research. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7513-2_26

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