ABSTRACT
Kristiina A. Vogt, Bruce C. Larson, Daniel J. Vogt, John C. Gordon, Anna Fanzeres, Jennifer L. O’Hara, Peter A. Palmiotto
The movement toward certification has developed as a response of society to the perceived lack of sustainable management of the world’s forest resources. Society’s perception of what acceptable forest management is has been strongly influenced by the rapid increase in tropical deforestation and cutting of old-growth forests on public lands (i.e., spotted owl controversy in the Pacific Northwest United States; Vogt et al. 1997a). As a result, society’s values have changed and have brought about regulations which are meant to control forest management practices that are more in line with society’s desire to see forests managed in a strictly sustainable manner. The challenge for certification is to meet and satisfy the changing societal values of what they perceive to be acceptable management practices on forestlands. Adding to this challenge is the fact that the regulations borne from society’s desire to see better management of public lands are now being imposed on private landowners.
