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Crow, Sarah

Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources

2008

M.S.

For community-based forestry (CBF) initiatives in the United States, the decision to pursue forest certification represents a complex blend of both costs and benefits. Becoming certified can be challenging for rural CBF initiatives and economic returns for these efforts remain inconsistent. Given this divergence, why do CBF initiatives become certified? This thesis explores the motivations for forest certifications among CBF initiatives in Vermont, what they hope to achieve, and the benefits they realize as a result. Data were collected through 27 interviews with representatives of 18 organizations in Vermont, including all 13 certified organizations engaged in CBF and an additional five uncertified CBF efforts. Most groups were motivated to pursue certification largely for non-economic reasons including existing working relationships, value alignment, credibility and image.
Representatives of CBF initiatives felt that they largely achieved those goals. Economic benefits, such as green premium, were generally not primary motivations for participation and they were attained in only a few cases. Technical issues, such as achieving certification requirements, were a concern for many informants, and for some, the efforts of facilitating organizations and group certification procedures helped mitigate these issues. Generally, most certified informants were satisfied with the decision to become certified and felt that at least for now, certification was worth the extra effort and expense because it supported their organizational goals. In addition, this study highlights the role of facilitating organizations, external fknding and scale-sensitive certification options in helping community-based forestry efforts to engage in forest certification.