The Legitimacy of Bamboo Certification: Unpacking the Controversy and the Implications for a “Treelike” Grass

Abstract

Bamboo is emerging as an important substitute for wood and wood fiber. Although bamboo can be assimilated within existing forest certification mechanisms, there is growing controversy among experts regarding the applicability and efficacy of adopting such instruments. Through an accumulation of fieldwork, interviews, and discussions among experts between 2005 and 2014, this article analyzes the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification, as well as proposals arising within the bamboo community. Through the lens of legitimacy, it analyzes stakeholders' views of the input legitimacy (processes) and output legitimacy (effectiveness) of FSC bamboo certification. It highlights the dissatisfaction with the third-party model for smallholders, as well the lack of ecological management gains within the FSC system. However, currently the bamboo communities of practice are divided about ways to proceed regarding creating alternative approaches. At a macro level, it highlights current challenges regarding the need to facilitate new resources into already existing institutions.

Keywords:

• bamboo
• cultural/political ecology
• environmental sociology
• forest certification
• forest/natural resource policy
• natural resources
• sustainability

Acknowledgments

This article was written while Kathleen Buckingham was writing her DPhil thesis at the University of Oxford. She has since graduated. The authors thank Graeme Auld and Constance McDermott for their input into the DPhil thesis version of this article and the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR) for its support.

Notes

In 2012 Kimberly-Clark created three bamboo fiber product lines (Kimberly-Clark 2012).

NTFPs are a commodity group defined by what they are “not”—being perceived as less valuable than timber.

Part of the controversy of bamboo certification has to do with Chinese monoculture plantations receiving FSC certification with suspected unsustainable practices—to criticize these plantations implicates Chinese industry. Many Chinese respondents were therefore unwilling to discuss this topic, and those who did often did not want to be recorded.

The first certificate dates from 2008.

The first certificate dates from 2011.

EcoPlanet Bamboo has FSC certified plantations in Nicaragua; however, these are currently not listed on the database. In 2014, Colombia was listed as having 4 FM/COC, China 18 FM/COC, and India 1 FM/COC.

Interviews 13, 34, 45, 58, 59.

Interviews 2, 13, 34, 45, 58, 59, 61.

Interviews 13, 34, 45, 58, 59.

Interview in Guwharti, February 2009.

Interview 55, expert at the Chinese Academy of Subtropical Forestry.

It is a recognized certification system required for market access.

Interview 55.

Interview 25.

High-yield management techniques for Moso bamboo stands.

Interviews 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 45, 53, 61.

Interviews 45, 60.

Understanding of certification varies among actors. Those with a clear grasp of certification as an institutionalized market mechanism understand the challenge of creating a new system that would have legitimacy in the marketplace.

Interviews 7, 14, 46, 57.

Interviews 26, 47.

Interviews 4, 5, 14, 15, 47, 57.

Interview 32.

Interview 8, 58, 59.

Interview 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 60.

Interview 66.

Interview 9.

Interview 12.

Personal communication, Rainforest Alliance 2013.