Forestry certification: an overwiev about forest owners in Galicia region (Nw Spain)

Abstract

[ENG] The significant depletion and current state of the world-wide forest resources have generated important discussion with regard to sharing and developing knowledge in sustainable forest management by numerous research groups, at diverse disciplines and at different levels. Nowadays, the range of possibilities related to forest sustainability is diverse and have taken shape in standard patterns of forest certification and systems of Criteria & Indicators (C&I) at different work scales. Nevertheless, sustainability patterns have been mainly developed in public forests or private forests of important industries, with a clear wood-production approach. On individual private forests, forest certification, as standard to follow, it supposes an important obstacle to overcome given some social and structural constraints to multifunctional management. Under these circumstances, it is not surprising that forest certification approaches more a barrier than an opportunity for small landowners. On communal private forests, the remarkable decline of traditional agroforestry practices and certain mistrust of Forest Public Administration - sometimes vindicated - have caused the loss of community forest culture and therefore, a non-sustainable management. Those factors have created a kind of tragedy of communals, abandoning the communal management and hindering the forest certification. Given the solid link between farming and forestry activities, current policy measures and research lines have to improve the economic profitability for motivating sustainable forest practices as focal point on the rural development strategy.