The status of forest certification in the Canadian value-added wood products manufacturing sector

With forest certification on the rise in Canada, a nation-wide mail survey was implemented in 2004 to gain insight into the attitudes of value-added wood products manufacturers towards certification. The majority of firms in this sector (64.8%) were not interested in forest certification, and only 17.6% were involved with forest certification at the time of the survey. Another 17.6% did express interest in becoming involved within the next five years. Low levels of knowledge and awareness regarding forest certification and a perceived lack of consumer demand for certified forest products were identified as factors contributing to the significant lack of interest in adopting certification. Although uptake remains limited, a cluster analysis identified a sizeable segment of manufacturers (43.5%) that has a "wait and see" attitude towards forest certification pending future developments in consumer markets. Logistic regression indicated that manufacturer interest in forest certification is linked to both awa...