Oaklands and forest certification: a Rural Development example

Abstract: In the last years, forest certification has become the most important union between the use of forest resources of timber and non-timber sources, with sustainable and responsible exploitation. The most important global systems in sustainable forest management certification are PEFC and FSC, both promote a type of management that has multiple environmental benefits such as biodiversity conservation or contribution to mitigating climate change, it also provides economic advantages as improve productivity, rationalizes exploitation and making the products more competitive in local and global markets. It contributes also to social benefit, creating jobs, helping to improve well-being and development of rural areas. This study analyzes the evolution that have taken over the years, both forest certification systems and other aspects related to this topic, in addition to comparing the degree of implementation in Spain, also in the different autonomous communities, and specifically focus on Galicia and we will analyze business sectors most closely relate to forest certification. The actual society inclinations is to have a higher sensitivity and concern for the environment, in this way forest certification has become a symbol of commitment to the natural environment, so not only forest owners are interested in this topic, also consumers increasingly opt for products that have a stamp of sustainable forest management and the demand for these products is increasing in the market. For this reason is necessary to analyze different consumer trends, through a survey of a sample of population, that will give us information on topics related with forest certification, preoccupation of the environment and knowledge about consumer trends in the social level, this material forms the second part of the investigation.