Forest certification map of Europe

doi:10.3832/ifor2668-011

Forest certification map of Europe

Mauro Maesano⁽¹⁾ , Marco Ottaviano⁽²⁾, Gun Lidestav⁽³⁾, Bruno Lasserre⁽²⁾, Giorgio Matteucci⁽⁴⁾, Giuseppe Scarascia Mugnozza⁽⁵⁾, Marco Marchetti⁽²⁾

iForest - Biogeosciences and Forestry, Volume 11, Issue 4, Pages 526-533 (2018)
doi: https://doi.org/10.3832/ifor2668-011
Published: Aug 01, 2018 - Copyright © 2018 SISEF

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Forests cover nearly 40% of European land, with different country percentage and patchy distribution. The European forestry sector highlights that forest areas have different ownership: private (by firms, individual, or organizations) and public (State, communities or municipalities). The number of forestry holdings, size of landholding, and ownership types influence and drive forest management, governance and various other socio-economic linked issues. Moreover, forest owners determine management objectives and policies which influence the application of Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) practices. Several tools were developed to promote SFM, including forest certification. Numerous forest certification schemes are present across the world but the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) are those prevalent. However, a map of certified forests is lacking, although mapping would be essential to locate the percentage of forest that are certified to be sustainably managed. The study mapped forest certification across 43 European states, according to 499 FSC and 284 PEFC reports and assessed the proportion of certified forest area on public and private land and the rate of increase. This research was carried out collecting information on European certified forest companies/owners and locating geographically their forests at sub-national level (regions, NUTS 2). The database of the Joint COST Action FACESMAP/UNECE/FAO was an important data source. At European level, about six percent of the forest is certified under FSC scheme, while about seven percent under PEFC scheme. As forest certification is a useful tool to manage forests aiming at the integration of economic, ecological and social sustainability, the knowledge of the location and area of certified forest in Europe could be important in motivating decision makers to increase these sustainably managed areas.

Keywords

Forest Policy, Sustainable Forest Management, Forest Certification, Forest Owners, Forest Management

Authors’ address

(1)

National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Institute for Agricultural and Forestry Systems in the Mediterranean (ISAFOM), v. Cavour, 4-6 I-87036 Rende, CS (Italy)

(2)

Department of Bioscience and Territory (DiBT), University of Molise, c.da Fonte Lappone snc, I-86090 Pesche, IS (Italy)

(3)

Department of forest resource management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), 90183 Umeå (Sweden)

(4)

National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Institute for Agricultural and Forestry Systems in the Mediterranean (ISAFOM), v. Patacca 85, I-80056 Ercolano, NA (Italy)

(5)

Department of Innovation in Biological, Agro-Food and Forest System (DIBAF), University of Tuscia, v. San Camillo de Lellis, I-01100 Viterbo, VT (Italy)

Corresponding author

Mauro Maesano
mauromaesano@gmail.com

Citation

Maesano M, Ottaviano M, Lidestav G, Lasserre B, Matteucci G, Scarascia Mugnozza G, Marchetti M (2018). Forest certification map of Europe. iForest 11: 526-533. - doi: 10.3832/ifor2668-011

Academic Editor

Agostino Ferrara

Paper history

Received: Oct 26, 2017
Accepted: May 16, 2018

First online: Aug 01, 2018
Publication Date: Aug 31, 2018
Publication Time: 2.57 months

Open Access

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

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