The State in Private Forest Governance: A Comparative Analysis of Forest Certification in Canada, the USA and Russia

该项目的目标是解释加拿大、美国和俄罗斯这三个国家政府对森林认证反应的差异。森林认证是一个程序，独立的第三方通过该程序评估森林公司是否符合预先指定的标准，并在验证符合性后颁发证书。在这种情况下，林业公司可以将其产品贴上来自管理良好的森林的标签。森林认证协会，例如FSC 和 PEFC 是由私人参与者（主要是非政府组织、公司和行业协会）于 20 世纪 90 年代创建的，旨在应对全球森林治理危机。许多非政府组织认为国内和国际保护森林的努力不够。他们试图通过使用全球公认的可持续发展标签来区分负责任地管理森林的林业公司，从而为可持续森林管理创造激励措施。有道德的消费者预计会更喜欢经过认证的产品，而不是未经认证的产品。最初，学者们关注市场和私人参与者（非政府组织和公司）在新森林治理体系中的作用，但随着时间的推移，他们开始更加关注国家在认证中的作用。然而，我们对国家和非国家行为体之间的相互作用仍然知之甚少。该项目旨在加深我们对自然资源非国家治理多层次系统中这些相互作用的理解。出发点是观察到国家行为者对森林认证的反应可能截然不同。他们的反应在各个国家和国家内部各地区都有所不同，从不采取行动到积极参与，从大力支持到断然拒绝。该项目的目标包括，首先，描述和系统化三个国家的这些应对措施，其次，解释它们。文献解释了许多因素相互作用造成的差异，包括行业对政府的期望、环境倡导、公共政策和认证标准之间的一致性、国家对全球木材市场贸易的依赖、国内林业部门的结构以及预期成本和效益。这些发现很重要，但没有掌握国家结构和国家森林治理体系的特点对政府对认证的反应的影响。加拿大和美国代表了发达的工业化国家，在森林部门拥有巩固的机构和强大的治理能力。俄罗斯是新兴市场经济体、机构和治理能力较弱的欠发达国家。他们的比较分析将深入了解森林治理的（去）中心化程度、区域治理能力以及国家与非政府组织互动的性质如何影响国家和区域（次国家）对认证的反应。

The project's goal is to explain the variation of governments' responses to forest certification across three nations: Canada, USA and Russia.Forest certification is a procedure through which independent third parties assess the compliance of forest companies with a pre-specified standard and issue certificates if compliance is verified. In this case, forest companies can label their products as originating from well-managed forests. Forest certification associations, e.g. FSC and PEFC, were created in the 1990s by private actors, mostly nongovernmental organizations, companies and industry associations, in order to respond to the crisis of global forest governance. Many NGOs perceived domestic and international efforts to protect forests as inadequate. They sought to create incentives for sustainable forest management by distinguishing forest companies managing their forests responsibly with a globally-recognized sustainability label. Ethical consumers were expected to prefer certified products over non-certified ones.Initially, scholars focused on the role of markets and private actors (NGOs and companies) in the new forest governance systems, but over time they started paying more attention to the role of states in certification. Yet we still know relatively little about the interactions between state and nonstate actors. The project aims at deepening our understanding of these interactions in multi-level systems of nonstate governance of natural resources.The starting point is the observation that state actors can respond very differently to forest certification. Their reactions range across countries and regions within countries from no action to active involvement and from energetic support to outright rejection. The objectives of the project include, first, describing and systematizing these responses across three nations and, second, explaining them. The literature explains the differences as a result of the interaction of many factors, including industry expectations towards governments, environmental advocacy, alignment between public policy and certification standards, country dependence on trade in the global timber market, the structure of domestic forest sectors and expected costs and benefits. These findings are important, but do not grasp the impact of the structure of the state and the characteristics of the state forest governance systems on government responses to certification.Canada and USA represent developed industrialized countries with consolidated institutions and strong governance capacity in the forest sector. Russia represents less advanced countries with emerging market economies and weaker institutions and governance capacity. Their comparative analysis will generate insights into how the degree of (de)centralization of forest governance, regional governance capacity and the nature of state-NGO interactions shape state responses at the national and regional (sub-national) to certification.