TY - JOUR
T1 - A spatial dependence approach to assessing the impacts of Sustainable Forestry Initiative's Fiber Sourcing certification on forestry Best Management Practices in Georgia, United States
AU - Kadam, Parag
AU - Magnan, Nicholas
AU - Dwivedi, Puneet
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - Understanding the effectiveness of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative Fiber Sourcing (SFI-FS) standard in increasing/sustaining a high forestry Best Management Practices (BMP) implementation rate is critical for the overall sustainability of southern forestlands. We analyze the impacts of SFI-FS standard on the forestry BMP implementation rate in Georgia, United States, by considering the locations of certified and non-certified mills between 2002 and 2019. The results show each increasing non-certified sourcing area overlap reduces BMP rates by 0.15%, while the same rate goes up by 0.08% overall with each increasing certified sourcing overlap. Moreover, the results of the spatial analyses indicate that neighbors' certified overlaps have a negative effect on average forestry BMP rates associated with a sourcing mill, even though the overall effect is positive. An increase in own harvesting area and mill size reduces BMP rates by 0.056%, but an increase for neighboring sourcing mills increases them by 0.063%, showing an overall positive effect of these two variables. These findings reflect the supply chain inefficiency brought on by concurrent contracting behavior between small mills and their larger certified neighbors. BMP rates are higher in the mill sourcing area by 0.023%, with each increase in the presence of perennial streams, further indicating that loggers are adequately following BMPs in areas that have perennial streams. Our overall results show that spatial dependence is an essential mechanism for ascertaining the effectiveness of SFI-FS standard at large spatial scales.
AB - Understanding the effectiveness of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative Fiber Sourcing (SFI-FS) standard in increasing/sustaining a high forestry Best Management Practices (BMP) implementation rate is critical for the overall sustainability of southern forestlands. We analyze the impacts of SFI-FS standard on the forestry BMP implementation rate in Georgia, United States, by considering the locations of certified and non-certified mills between 2002 and 2019. The results show each increasing non-certified sourcing area overlap reduces BMP rates by 0.15%, while the same rate goes up by 0.08% overall with each increasing certified sourcing overlap. Moreover, the results of the spatial analyses indicate that neighbors' certified overlaps have a negative effect on average forestry BMP rates associated with a sourcing mill, even though the overall effect is positive. An increase in own harvesting area and mill size reduces BMP rates by 0.056%, but an increase for neighboring sourcing mills increases them by 0.063%, showing an overall positive effect of these two variables. These findings reflect the supply chain inefficiency brought on by concurrent contracting behavior between small mills and their larger certified neighbors. BMP rates are higher in the mill sourcing area by 0.023%, with each increase in the presence of perennial streams, further indicating that loggers are adequately following BMPs in areas that have perennial streams. Our overall results show that spatial dependence is an essential mechanism for ascertaining the effectiveness of SFI-FS standard at large spatial scales.
KW - Best Management Practices
KW - Fiber Sourcing
KW - Forest certification
KW - Spatial dependence
KW - Sustainable Forestry Initiative
U2 - 10.1016/j.forpol.2023.103071
DO - 10.1016/j.forpol.2023.103071
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85174860535
VL - 157
JO - Forest Policy and Economics
JF - Forest Policy and Economics
SN - 1389-9341
M1 - 103071
ER -