In the past decade, the public’s growing concerns over the utilization and preservation of the world’s forest resources have led to many governmental discussions, programs, and initiatives, at both the local and international levels. While many of these discussions focused on the issue of forest sustainability, it is clear that a common definition of sustainability does not exist. Therefore, environmental interests groups, the forest industry, and other non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) have developed their own alternatives to the initiatives, most of which emphasize the objectives of the various groups. Of these programs, third-party conformance assessments, or alternatively forest certification, have received much attention.

In the West Coast Region of the United States strict legal mandates, such as those directed under the Northwest Forest Plan, have greatly limited the harvest of timber from National Forest lands in the region. To possibly offset the impacts of the decreased harvest levels, Lakeview, Oregon, a necessary processing location for timber harvested from the Lakeview Federal Sustained Yield Unit, recently revealed interest in pursuing Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification of the federal lands in their unit. Due to this interest, the FSC organized a working group to assess the feasibility of certifying the Lakeview Unit, as well as other National Forest lands in the United States.

The FSC program was developed with the objective of assuring consumers-- who are understood to wield significant power through their consumption decisions-- that they are purchasing wood and paper products that originate from responsibly managed sustainable forests. The benefits to the landowner for participating in the program are diverse and differ by ownership (i.e. public, industrial, or small private). These benefits can include higher product prices, increased (or retained) market share, and improved public perception of the organization. Both direct and indirect costs accrue to the landowner. Direct costs are the costs of initiating the certification process and are typically paid to the certifying agency that initiates the assessment. Included are fees associated with the initial application, inspection, annual auditing and fixed fees. In a broad sense, the indirect costs of forest certification can be segmented into the marginal costs of altering forest management to meet the certification standards and the certification-related information costs.

To better explore the possibility of certifying federal lands in the US, the FSC developed a working group to assess this issue further. Though the process under which this working group arrived at their conclusions appear somewhat flawed, they do succinctly state that FSC certification of the National Forests in the US should not be pursued at this time. Though approaching the issue quite differently, and hence drawing conclusions for different reasons, the overall findings of this paper are the same.

A summary of the findings relating to the certification of National Forests in the West Coast Region of the US is presented in terms of positive and negative aspects. The positive aspects include:

• Cost implications to the Forest Service of entering the FSC program are relatively low;
• FSC-certification could act as a subsidy for rural timber dependent communities;
• Certification may help stimulate small-diameter wood utilization-- something of which many areas in the region are in dire need;
• Certification could help improve the public perception of the Forest Service;
• Successful participation by the Forest Service (as a role model) could prove useful in drawing other landowners into the program, and;
• Forest Service participation could prove to be an effective tool in promoting forest certification and certified products.

The negative aspects include:

• Forest Service participation could harm the overall market for certified forest products;
• Chain-of-custody issues could harm those bidding for National Forest timber sales;
• Demand for appropriate species found in the West Coast Region is problematic, and;
• National and possibly global impacts are hard to estimate.

Though not as numerous, the negative aspects seem to outweigh the positive. This conclusion is not necessarily reached through the substance of the items listed, either positive or negative, but instead through the relative uncertainty involved in estimating the true impact of any of the specific items. Forest certification is still in its youth and an effective assessment of the situation is still quite difficult. Until a significant market for certified forest products develops, the entrance into the market by such a large-scale supplier as the US Forest Service could prove to weaken the program.