Forest certification with Chinese characteristics: state engagement with non-state market-driven governance

Abstract

Forest certification is conceptualized as non-state market–driven (NSMD) governance, whereby forces within the market are used to drive sustainable practices at the forest management level and throughout supply chains. Whilst recent scholarship has considered the “cross fertilization” and hybrid nature of the state and non-state in creating sustainable forest governance, these studies have tended to focus on national cases involving democratic countries where the “space” for private standards and auditors is relatively unconstrained. This study seeks to fill this gap though an examination of the entry of transnational forest certification approaches into China. Drawing on extensive fieldwork conducted in China during 2010, it traces the creation of a new forest certification scheme, which aims to be adopted under the Program for Endorsement of Forest Certification Schemes (PEFC). The study examines the legitimacy sought by the Chinese government on three fronts–to appeal to the differing needs of both international and domestic markets simultaneously, whilst ultimately assuming a legitimate form of (institutionalized) domestic governance, which allows the government to maintain their authority over the mechanism and its operations. The study also focuses on the principles of NSMD governance through an analysis of the legitimate authority afforded to the state, third-parties and NGOs within China. It contributes to political geography by examining how isomorphic forms of institutionalized governance are reproduced within local settings, with the aim of adhering to both global norms of legitimate governance and domestic norms of legitimate power.

Keywords:

• forest certification
• non-state market driven governance
• China
• legitimacy
• institutions
• forest policy

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Corrigendum

Acknowledgements

The author thanks Graeme Auld and Constance McDermott for their input into the DPhil thesis chapter, from which this article is based.

Notes

1. Since Deng Xiaoping coined the term “Socialism with Chinese characteristics” as the socio-political-economic guiding principle for China’s modernization, the phrase “with Chinese characteristics” has become synonymous with the Chinese way of doing things in many Chinese policy documents (Chang 2011).

2. Wang (2010). Forest Certification in China. Presentation on CFCC at PEFC stakeholders’ dialog.

3. Lu (2010). Legality Verification and Certification. Presentation given at the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan, July.

4. Accreditation Services International (ASI) is responsible for managing the FSC program.

5. Zhonglintianhe (Chinese Forest Certification Center) presentation, September 2010, Beijing.