China's Forest Certification Development and its Impacts on China's Forest Products Trade

Forest certification-an institutional innovation propelling sustainable forest management-has been recognized and accepted by a number of countries. Though great progress China has made in forest certification in recent years, the certified forest area and its ratio should be enlarged and raised urgently compared with that of other regions and countries such as five BRICKS nations, APEC countries and the G20. It's promoted worldwide for not only improving the credibility of certified institutions and the reputation of sylva of its country, but also playing a significant role in biological conservation, production safety of cutting sections and the environmental risk control in forest management. With the forest certification highly valued by the government, China Forest Certification Council (CFCC) has been established and increasingly improved with ten years' development. In February 2014, CFCC achieved mutual recognition with Program for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC), marking the formal presence of CFCC in global arena. The forest certification presents favorable opportunities for China to participate in forest products transactions. In this paper, both the forest certification development in China and the influences of forest certification development on the international (especially China's) forest product trade were analyzed. Considering the major shares China has in global forest product trade, the influences that the forest certification development may have on China's foreign trade of forest products should be fully recognized and utilized.