Articlegreen2009

Comparing forest certification schemes: the case of ratcheting standards in the forest sector

250 citations0/0 files storedSocio-Economic Review

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

Global trade, sustainability, and social impact Forest Management and Policy Regulation and Compliance Studies

Abstract

This project evaluates the factors driving improvement of industry-sponsored private regulatory standards under conditions of competition in three-country contexts between 1995 and 2005. The paper provides a comparative analysis of regulatory competition in forestry in the USA, Sweden and Finland. While previous research has identified the importance of transnational supply chain pressure and of NGOs’ direct targeting campaigns in diffusing and upgrading standards, this paper stresses the role of public comparison and environmental benchmarking that contributed to an upgrading of industry standards via competition between the Forest Stewardship Council and rival industry-sponsored schemes. The paper explores how transnational and national actors created important moments of public comparison in which substantive as well as accountability standards were ratcheted up while they diffused more broadly across industry. This project evaluates the role of environmental benchmarking in constructing and contesting the legitimacy of private regulation.

Citations in this library

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 250 citations exist upstream.

References

1977Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony 2007Rankings and Reactivity: How Public Measures Recreate Social Worlds 1998Commensuration as a Social Process 2008Constructing and contesting legitimacy and accountability in polycentric regulatory regimes 2004Governing through Markets: Forest Certification and the Emergence of Non-State Authority 2006Firm self-regulation through international certifiable standards: determinants of symbolic versus substantive implementation 2005Green Clubs and Voluntary Governance: ISO 14001 and Firms' Regulatory Compliance 2003Certifying Forests and Factories: States, Social Movements, and the Rise of Private Regulation in the Apparel and Forest Products Fields

Cited by

2018Sustainability Standards: Interactions Between Private Actors, Civil Society, and Governments 2013‘Roundtabling’ sustainability: Lessons from the biofuel industry 2011Voluntary environmental programs: A comparative perspective 2010Forest certification as a global environmental governance tool: What is the macro-effectiveness of the Forest Stewardship Council?2012Taking responsive regulation transnational: Strategies for international organizations

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.