MEDICINAL

Global awareness towards sustainable forest management and economic implications along with market forces and consumer preferences for quality forestry products is necessitating a management paradigm that ensures the sustainability of forests. In order to ensure consumer transparency and creating social and environmental accountability in trading of forest produce, certification of forests is emerging as a possible global solution.

Certification thus, is a market based tool which broadly means that any forest produce up for sale in domestic or international market is derived from sustainably managed forests. Accordingly, certification is also an important means of protecting forests by promoting responsible and better management practices. It provides an assurance that the forestry operations meet standards set by the certifying authority. Forests are hence, evaluated on the basis of defined sets of standards and certified by an independent qualified auditor.

Forest certification is the process by which the performance of on-the-ground forestry operations are assessed against a set of predetermined set of standards.

In other words, certification is also a means of tracking the produce through a chain of custody following raw materials through to the finished products certifying that the products have come from well and sustainably managed forests or farmland areas.

Certification of forest management and eco-labelling of forest products are receiving much attention as potential instruments for promoting export markets and improving the state of managed forest ecosystems.

Certification is a new concept of marketing, keeping in view, the provisions of WTO, wherein majority of timber exporting countries have initiated certification of their forest products on their own. It has become an important tool for conservation of rich flora and fauna, at the same time; India can find its own niche in timber and NTFP market and become a practical conservationist through certified forestry products. Certification creates economic incentives to achieve and maintain high standards for forest management worldwide.

Certification commenced with a strong focus on the goal of improving forest management standards, and in particular contributing strongly to reducing the rate of deforestation and degradation of the world's forests - with initial focus heavily oriented to tropical forests. The aim has been to use market forces to encourage or force improved management of the forests. Those promoting it hope that buyers will show a preference for certified products, which in turn will either encourage producers to improve their forest management in order to tap this demand, or force them to do so under the threat of losing markets if they do not. The focus has, however, changed considerably as the realities of what it might or might not be able to achieve have become recognized. It has also changed to reflect the interests of the many different groups that have become involved with it in one way or another - environmentalists, forest managers, governments, industry, traders, retailers, certifying companies, consultants, investment firms, aid agencies, etc.

It is currently being promoted for a variety of reasons - from forest management reasons to marketing reasons. Despite its stated purpose of improving forest management, the main interest of most of those undertaking certification at present is probably in the marketing benefits it may offer them. The aim is to either increase market share, or at least avoid loss due to boycotts or restrictions such as are increasingly common in some parts of Europe and the United States of America.