Commodifying legality? Who and what counts as legal in the Indonesian wood trade

Journal article

Abstract:: This article examines how legality verification in Indonesia, as developed under the European Union (EU) Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA), shapes who and what count as legal. A review of Indonesia’s evolving legality verification system and in-depth stakeholder interviews reveal a process of commodification driven by international demand for an interchangeable label of “legality.” This interchangeability is produced through a reduction of forest governance to a narrow set of legal standards and third-party, private auditing, which risks obscuring key governance challenges such as corruption and unclear tenure, and excluding most domestic and small-scale operators from economic and legal recognition. Given the market logic of legality licensing, it is more likely to “ratchet down” than “ratchet up” local access to, and benefit from, wood production, unless there is greater support and investment in legal and tenure reforms and improved local benefit capture.

Files:: Attached standard file FLEGT Indonesia_160721_CM3_AS2 inputs.pdf

(Preview, Accepted manuscript, pdf, 243.0KB, Terms of use)

Keywords:: certification

legal analysis

legality verification

illegal logging

smallholders

Indonesia

FELGT VPA

forest
Pubs id:: pubs:664443
UUID:: uuid:ab17a52d-ed01-4e49-b829-322d9002b666
Local pid:: pubs:664443
Source identifiers:: 664443
Deposit date:: 2016-12-15

Notes:: This is the author accepted manuscript following peer review version of the article. The final version is available online from Taylor and Francis at: 10.1080/08941920.2016.1239295

Licence:: Terms and Conditions of Use for Oxford University Research Archive

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