Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
An example may clarify how the four levels relate to each other. Under the
sixth principle, “environmental impact”, the second criterion requires safeguards
to protect rare, threatened and endangered species and their habitats, and to that
end, conservation zones and protection areas shall be established. Indicators are
defined at a national level. For instance, for FSC in the Brazilian Amazon, indica-
tors relate to a 100 percent invetory of all threatened and endangered species, the
steps taken for protection, the conservation of dead trees, the avoidance of frag-
mentation of habitats, agreements about scientific studies and the knowledge of
the workers about species and habitats. At the lowest level, verifiers relate for
instance, to areas demarcated on maps, management prescriptions and manage-
ment records.
10.7
Requirements Associated with FSC for Plantations
In this section we will discuss the requirements specified for plantations, i.e., a
core topic of this chapter. In 2000 there was a total of 187 million hectares of
plantations worldwide, which is five percent of the total forest area of 3,869 mil-
lion hectares (FAO 2001). Of this area a total 23 million has been certified under
the FSC (see Table 10.1). As an example, in South Africa, 80 percent of the plan-
tation sector supports FSC (Cashore et al. 2006). Certification of plantations is a
contentious issue. On the one hand they are a large source of timber; with five
percent of forest area they produce about 35 percent (expected to rise to 44 per-
cent by 2020 [FSC 2005]) of all timber harvested. According to the FSC, this
intensive form of forestry can alleviate the pressure on natural forests. Plantations
also contribute significantly to carbon sequestration and can replace fossil fuels
and increase biodiversity when established on degraded land (e.g., Lamb 1998;
Montagnini and Porras 1998; Roshetko et al. 2002; Lal and Singh 2003; Redondo-
Brenes 2007). The local employment they create is important socially (FSC
2005). The FSC's mission to certify forest plantations is based on positive
assumptions regarding its effects, and is well expressed in the following adage:
“While plantations can provide an array of social and economic benefits, and can
contribute to satisfying the world's needs for forest products, they should comple-
ment the management of, reduce pressures on, and promote the restoration and
conservation of natural forests” (FSC 2005). This role of supporting the conser-
vation of natural forests is clearly expressed in the FSC criteria and was finalized
two years after completion of the criteria for the first nine principles set out in
Section 10.6. They must be seen as additional and plantations must therefore
meet the criteria for all ten principles.
However, compared to natural forests, these positives are counterbalanced by a
number of negatives. Plantations often are the result of intensive exploitation of
natural forests and are allied to biodiversity loss and disruption of soil hydrology
and nutrient regimes (e.g., Schroth et al. 2002; Díaz et al. 2007; Pandey et al. 2007).
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