期刊
LAND USE POLICY
卷 131, 期 -, 页码 -出版社
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2023.106724
关键词
Accreditation; Audit quality; Forest management certification; FSC
Forest management certification is an important initiative to incentivise improvement of forest management, and it relies on auditing and accreditation to assess conformance with standards and promote improvements. This study examines the findings raised against Certification Bodies (CABs) during accreditation evaluations of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) forest management certification. The results indicate the effectiveness of accreditation activities in capturing essential audit-related failures and improving the practice of forest management auditing.
One important initiative to incentivise improvement of forest management that could help maintain forestry as a feasible land use while realising socio-environmental and economic benefits is forest management certification. The most prominent scheme is the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) that started implementation in 1994. FSC certification relies on two mechanisms to assess conformance with its standard: auditing of management practices based on agreed-upon principles, criteria, and indicators; and accreditation to assess the quality of the audit process. Addressing the scant research on outcomes of accreditation activities, the goal of this study is to examine the findings raised against Certification Bodies (CABs) by Assurance Services International assessors during their accreditation evaluations regarding the quality of auditing FSC forest management certification around the world. The content of all 141 publicly available assessments reports elaborated between 2013 and 2019 was analysed and the 454 identified findings (i.e., non-conformities and opportunities for improvement) were categorised utilising an innovative framework based on key desirable attributes of the audit process to capture certification-related changes on-the-ground. Europe and Asia have seen the largest number of accreditation efforts through the study period, but no differences among regions were identified in terms of the mean number of findings per assessment. The results indicate a possible lesser effectiveness of the compliance assessments when compared with the witness assessments. Accreditation activities allow to capture major failures in essential auditrelated activities: auditors' decisions, ability of auditors to collect, interpret, and synthesise evidence, as well as making reports publicly accessible. Availability of information regarding accreditation processes and the analysis of the accreditation reports can assist in grounding learning processes to improve accreditation activities and the practice of forest management auditing. The accumulated experiences can have positive consequences for forests, as well as beyond forestry, due to the broad coverage of certification labels across sectors and commodities.
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