Abstract
In response to unsustainable timber production in tropical forest concessions, voluntary forest management certification programs such as the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) have been introduced to improve environmental, social, and economic performance over existing management practices. However, despite the proliferation of forest certification over the past two decades, few studies have evaluated its effectiveness. Using temporally and spatially explicit village-level data on environmental and socio-economic indicators in Kalimantan (Indonesia), we evaluate the performance of the FSC-certified timber concessions compared to non-certified logging concessions. Employing triple difference matching estimators, we find that between 2000 and 2008 FSC reduced aggregate deforestation by 5 percentage points and the incidence of air pollution by 31%. It had no statistically significant impacts on fire incidence or core areas, but increased forest perforation by 4 km2 on average. In addition, we find that FSC reduced firewood dependence (by 33%), respiratory infections (by 32%) and malnutrition (by 1 person) on average. By conducting a rigorous statistical evaluation of FSC certification in a biodiversity hotspot such as Indonesia, we provide a reference point and offer methodological and data lessons that could aid the design of ongoing and future evaluations of a potentially critical conservation policy.
Highlights
Tropical forests are of primary importance to biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation [1,2]
We focus on evaluating the performance of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) forest management certification program in Kalimantan, Indonesia
We focus on the impact of the FSC forest management certification program between 2000 and 2008 in Kalimantan (Fig 1, Table 1)
Summary
Tropical forests are of primary importance to biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation [1,2]. Between 2000 and 2010 1.8Mha of forests (12.8% of all deforestation during that time period) were lost within commercial logging concessions in the country, with Kalimantan (the Indonesian part of the island of Borneo) being the most severely affected island [6]. Even selective logging can lead to degraded forests with low species richness [7]. Like in many other locations, establishing tenure in the form of forest logging concessions has often not been effective due to conflicting incentives and ineffective government responses [8,9]. Traditional concessions employ the Indonesian Selective Cutting and Planting System (TPTI), which sets rotation time and the diameter of the harvested trees, necessitates replanting in the presence of low natural restocking rates and bans on logging on sensitive
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