Forest certification with Chinese characteristics: state engagement with non-state market-driven governance

Forest certification is conceptualized as non-state market–driven (NSMD) governance, whereby forces within the market are used to drive sustainable practices at the forest management level and throughout supply chains. Whilst recent scholarship has considered the “cross fertilization” and hybrid nature of the state and non-state in creating sustainable forest governance, these studies have tended to focus on national cases involving democratic countries where the “space” for private standards and auditors is relatively unconstrained. This study seeks to fill this gap though an examination of the entry of transnational forest certification approaches into China. Drawing on extensive fieldwork conducted in China during 2010, it traces the creation of a new forest certification scheme, which aims to be adopted under the Program for Endorsement of Forest Certification Schemes (PEFC). The study examines the legitimacy sought by the Chinese government on three fronts–to appeal to the differing needs of both international and domestic markets simultaneously, whilst ultimately assuming a legitimate form of (institutionalized) domestic governance, which allows the government to maintain their authority over the mechanism and its operations. The study also focuses on the principles of NSMD governance through an analysis of the legitimate authority afforded to the state, third-parties and NGOs within China. It contributes to political geography by examining how isomorphic forms of institutionalized governance are reproduced within local settings, with the aim of adhering to both global norms of legitimate governance and domestic norms of legitimate power.