Has Forest Certification Reduced Forest Degradation in Sweden?

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Table 1

Environmentally Important Areas Analysis: Descriptive Statistics for the Consideration Monitoring Dataset

	All Sample N = 3,005				Final Sample N = 763		Certified N = 247 Mean	Noncertified N = 516 Mean	FSC^{^a}N = 53 Mean	PEFC^{^b}N = 75 Mean	Both N = 82 Mean
	Mean	Std. Dev.	Min.	Max.	Mean	Difference (All - Final)	Certified N = 247 Mean	Noncertified N = 516 Mean	FSC^{^a}N = 53 Mean	PEFC^{^b}N = 75 Mean	Both N = 82 Mean
Plot Characteristics
Area requested for felling (ha)	6.705	8.231	0.500	120.000	6.480	0.302	5.752	6.828	7.766	5.672	5.037
Environmentally important area Before clearing (ha)	0.706	1.695	0.000	39.500	0.673	0.045	0.502	0.755	0.788	0.447	0.415
After clearing (ha)	0.497	1.393	0.000	39.500	0.474	0.031	0.341	0.537	0.422	0.305	0.319
Noncompliance rate (0/1)	0.641	0.480	0.000	1.000	0.649	–0.010	0.623	0.661	0.755	0.560	0.598
Environmental damage (ha)	0.209	0.849	0.000	21.915	0.199	0.014	0.161	0.217	0.366	0.142	0.096
Damage/area before clearing	0.288	0.349	0.000	1.000	0.273	0.019	0.266	0.277	0.342	0.301	0.209
Noncompliers only
Environmental damage (ha)	0.326	1.042	0.002	21.915	0.307	0.026	0.258	0.329	0.485	0.254	0.161
Damage/area before clearing	0.420	0.350	0.000	1.000	0.395	0.034^*	0.397	0.394	0.454	0.473	0.320
Forest Owner Characteristics
Female (0/1)	0.242	0.428	0.000	1.000	0.166	0.101^***	0.121	0.188	0.132	0.107	0.134
Single decision maker (0/1)	0.273	0.446	0.000	1.000	0.642	–0.495^***	0.587	0.669	0.585	0.627	0.646
Age (years)	59.337	13.003	23.000	94.000	60.308	–1.302^***	59.364	60.760	58.698	58.680	60.512
Owner lives near forest plot (0/1)	0.780	0.415	0.000	1.000	0.811	–0.042^**	0.838	0.798	0.925	0.827	0.805

Note: “All sample” refers to the complete sample of plots under the category of nonindustrial private forest owners that are randomly selected by the Swedish Forest Agency for forest inventory and monitoring both before and after clearing during the period 1999–2011. We excluded 1% of the observations due to missing or invalid information in any of the variables presented in this table. “Final sample” comprises the plots for which the certification status could be verified. FSC, Forest Stewardship Council; PEFC, Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification.
↵a Includes plots certified with the FSC before clearing but excludes plots that in addition obtained PEFC certification after clearing (20 observations).
↵b Includes plots certified with the PEFC before clearing but excludes plots that in addition obtained FSC certification after clearing (17 observations).
↵* p < 0.10;
↵** p < 0.05;
↵*** p <0.01.

Table 2

Trees and High Stumps Left Analysis: Descriptive Statistics for the Regeneration Monitoring Dataset

	All Sample N = 2,593				Final Sample N = 1,065		Certified N = 619 Mean	Noncertified N = 446 Mean
	Mean	Std.	Dev.	Min.	Max.	Difference (All – Final)	Certified N = 619 Mean	Noncertified N = 446 Mean
Plot Characteristics
Area requested for felling (ha)	6.734	8.105	0.500	94.200	6.786	–0.088	6.364	7.371
Number of trees left per hectare of cleared forest	8.813	12.182	0.000	180.534	0.697	0.142	9.356	7.859
Number of high stumps per hectare of cleared forest	1.427	2.296	0.000	19.111	0.812	–0.109	1.662	1.255
Noncompliance rate (trees left)	0.708	0.455	0.000	1.000	8.729	0.019	0.661	0.747
Noncompliance rate (high stumps)	0.822	0.382	0.000	1.000	1.492	0.017	0.790	0.843
Noncompliers Only
Number of trees left per hectare of cleared forest	3.350	2.965	0.000	9.976	3.374	–0.040	3.256	3.519
Number of high stumps per hectare of cleared forest	0.553	0.881	0.000	2.989	0.557	–0.007	0.595	0.508
Forest Owner Characteristics
Female (dummy)	0.240	0.427	0.000	1.000	0.176	0.110^***	0.168	0.186
Single decision maker (dummy)	0.290	0.454	0.000	1.000	0.638	–0.591^***	0.601	0.691
Age (years)	59.957	12.971	10.000	99.000	60.023	–0.112	60.047	59.989
Owner lives near forest plot (0/1)	0.802	0.399	0.000	1.000	0.823	–0.037^**	0.832	0.812

Note: “All sample” refers to the complete sample of plots under the category of nonindustrial private forest owners that are randomly selected by the Swedish Forest Agency for forest inventory and monitoring both before and after clearing during the period 1999–2011. We excluded 1% of the observations due to missing or invalid information in any of the variables presented in this table.
p < 0.10;
** p < 0.05;
↵*** p < 0.01.

Table 3

Descriptive Statistics Set-Aside Areas

Variable	Observations	Mean	Std. Dev.	Min.	Max.
All Sample
Set-aside area (ha)	283	148.456	879.565	0.400	12,588.000
Productive forest (ha)	283	1,117.629	3,432.936	7.000	38,728.000
Set-aside area (%)	283	0.088	0.121	0.000	0.987
Observations with 5% or less of set-aside area	113	0.028	0.015	0.000	0.050
Observations with more than 5% of set-aside area	170	0.128	0.142	0.050	0.987
	170	0.128	0.142	0.050	0.987
Any Certification
Set-aside area (ha)	188	118.198	510.169	0.500	5,343.000
Productive forest (ha)	188	1,036.766	2,230.048	7.000	16,145.000
Set-aside area (%)	188	0.096	0.123	0.003	0.987
Noncertified
Set-aside area (ha)	95	208.334	1,340.774	0.400	12,588.000
Productive forest (ha)	95	1,277.653	5,042.108	16.000	38,728.000
Set-aside area (%)	95	0.073	0.116	0.000	0.867
Certified FSC
Set-aside area (ha)	57	145.027	281.847	0.600	1,378.000
Productive forest (ha)	57	1,869.737	3,115.004	7.000	16,145.000
Set-aside area (%)	57	0.083	0.058	0.004	0.242
Certified PEFC
Set-aside area (ha)	131	106.525	582.855	0.500	5,343.000
Productive forest (ha)	131	674.328	1,592.852	8.000	12,883.000
Set-aside area (%)	131	0.101	0.142	0.003	0.987

Note: FSC, Forest Stewardship Council; PEFC, Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification.

Table 4

Effects of Forest Certification

Dependent Variable	Difference in Means	OLS (Year and County FE)	OLS (All Covariates)	ATT with OLS (All Covariates)	ATT with CVM on Trimmed Sample
A. Consideration Monitoring Dataset
Noncompliance rate	–0.037	0.013	0.01	0.013	0.072
Standard error	0.037	0.042	0.045	0.052	0.086
Observations	763	763	763	763	295
R-squared	0.001	0.134	0.161	0.213
Area cleared (ha)	–0.057	0.043	0.038	0.061	0.017
Standard error	0.069	0.093	0.086	0.060	0.115
Observations	763	763	763	763	295
R-squared	0.001	0.029	0.091	0.162
Area cleared (IHS)	–0.040	0.007	0.000	0.014	–0.018
Standard error	0.025	0.033	0.032	0.028	0.057
Observations	763	763	763	763	295
R-squared	0.003	0.041	0.109	0.201
Area cleared (%)	–0.011	0.019	0.023	0.030	0.075
Standard error	0.028	0.033	0.035	0.037	0.086
Observations	715	715	715	715	273
R-squared	0.000	0.067	0.085	0.170
B. Regeneration Monitoring Dataset
Trees left/ha	1.498^**	0.679	0.888	–0.778	–2.198
Standard error	0.691	0.828	0.894	1.062	1.451
Observations	1,065	1,065	1,065	1,065	754
R-squared	0.004	0.146	0.161	0.216
High stumps left/ha	0.407^***	0.237	0.106	0.183	0.126
Standard error	0.143	0.149	0.156	0.210	0.261
Observations	1,065	1,065	1,065	1,065	754
R-squared	0.007	0.155	0.169	0.200
Noncompliance Rate
Trees left/ha	–0.086^***	–0.052^*	–0.056^*	–0.015	0.038
Standard error	0.028	0.030	0.033	0.042	0.053
Observations	1,065	1,065	1,065	1,065	754
R-squared	0.008	0.110	0.125	0.157
High stumps left/ha	–0.053^**	–0.024	–0.000	–0.012	0.020
Standard error	0.024	0.025	0.027	0.036	0.045
Observations	1,065	1,065	1,065	1,065	754
R-squared	0.004	0.124	0.136	0.168

Note: All covariates include variables listed in Appendix Tables A2 and A3, respectively, and county and year fixed effects. The sample includes 21 counties and 13 years. Reported standard errors are robust (White 1980) for OLS, and Abadie and Imbens (2006, 2011) for covariate matching. ATT, average treatment effect on the treated; CVM, covariate matching; FE, fixed effects; IHS, inverse hyperbolic sine transformation; OLS, ordinary least squares.
↵* p < 0.10;
↵** p < 0.05;
↵*** p < 0.01.