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Transnational Environmental Governance: The Emergence and Effects of the Certification of Forests and Fisheries (review)

One of the most visible recent trends in the governance of renewable resources internationally (and of much else besides) is the emergence of voluntary certiacation systems. Two of the best known of these systems are the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), which create sustainability standards for forestry products and wild-caught ash respectively. Lars Gulbrandsen’s excellent book traces the evolution of and relationship between these two standards, and uses both to illustrate broader themes and draw lessons about voluntary certiacation more broadly. Both the FSC and the MSC are examples of what has been called “governance without government” in international relations. (Voluntary standards can be governmental as well, such as organic standards in the United States, but these are rare at the international level, and are not discussed in this volume). Certiacation is a particular form of this phenomenon, in which voluntary standards are designed to identify producers who choose to meet high environmental and/or social standards, rather than providing a point of convergence for all producers. Gulbrandsen points out that such standards, while voluntary, are not in fact governance without government—they require effective regulation and enforcement of things like copyright laws in order to function, and governments can have signiacant impacts on standards, through a variety of mechanisms, when they so choose. The book asks several questions about the evolution of environmental certiacation schemes, including how NGO-driven and industry-driven schemes relate to each other, how existing schemes affect new ones, and how effective certiacation is at achieving its intended goals. With respect to the arst question, Gulbrandsen argues, via a comparison of the forestry industries in Sweden and Norway, that getting large producers that sell to the international market and are sensitive to consumer and NGO pressure on board early in the process is key. The market pressure gives producers an incentive to participate in certiacation schemes. But in the absence of efforts to include producer voices in the creation of a scheme’s principles, rules, and procedures these producers may respond to market pressure by creating their own certiacation schemes. That is precisely what has happened in forestry. The FSC has had