The effect of expertise on the quality of forest standards implementation: The case of FSC forest certification in Russia

Published Date
Forest Policy and Economics
October 2009, Vol.11(5):422–428, doi:10.1016/j.forpol.2009.03.002
Discourse and Expertise in Forest and Environmental Governance

• Author 

• Olga Maletz ^a,,
• Maria Tysiachniouk ^b,1,

• aMax Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Paulstr. 3, 50676 Cologne, Germany
• bCenter for Independent Social Research, Ligovski pr. 87, Office 301, St. Petersburg 191040, Russia

Received 12 December 2007. Revised 20 February 2009. Accepted 19 March 2009. Available online 22 April 2009. 

Abstract

The central question of the paper is how differences in expertise affect the implementation of voluntary environmental standards in the forestry sector. Specifically we analyze the experience of two large forest companies in Russia that certified their forest management under the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) forest certification program. Drawing on the literature on financial auditing we show that specific outcomes of forest management standards implementation are shaped by the differences in forest management auditors' knowledge, skills and attitudes.

Keywords

Expertise

Experts

Forest certification

Forest management assessment

Environmental auditing

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