Why should we certify our forests? Factors that influence the adoption and maintenance of forest certification in Quintana Roo, Mexico

Environmental certification programs have been promoted by conservation and development agencies as an instrument to achieve sustainable forestry management practices and sound forest governance. In 1993, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) debuted their forest management eco-label to demonstrate to consumers that tropical timber products in the marketplace could originate from legal, well-managed sources. Almost twenty years later, the FSC has certified over a 145 million hectares of forests in 79 countries with a significant percentage of this certification occurring in temperate and boreal forests and plantations. Unfortunately, management for tropical forests, the original forests intended to benefit from certification, has lagged behind. Mexico is renowned for having some of the world's first FSC certified natural tropical forests. By the beginning of 2009, however, all of the previously certified community forests in the state of Quintana Roo lost their certification status. These events call into question the viability of environmental certification schemes and demonstrate the need for a better understanding of what factors lead to the demise of certification, especially within communally-owned tropical forests.;This study examines the factors that facilitate and impede the attainment and maintenance of forest certification within eleven communally-owned forests of Quintana Roo, specifically examining the role of institutions, forest policies and social actors in its promotion and maintenance. We conducted semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders: community members and leaders, forestry specialists from civil associations, governmental agencies, donor agencies and research institutes, and compared their perceptions of certification barriers and benefits to corresponding FSC audit reports. Ethnographic methods of participant-observation and informal conversations were also used to complement data and to better understand the context of how local livelihoods and relationships influence land use and management decision-making.;Conclusions indicate that economic factors, social capital and ejido distinguishment are important motivation drivers for communities to adopt certification, and in order to maintain certification stakeholders need to perceive it to be economically feasible and beneficial. Additionally, the implementation of support mechanisms by internal ejidal and external institutions to support sustainable forest management is necessary for its long-term maintenance.