Products cannot be certified unless sustainable or well-managed forests exist and there is some way of objectively determining this. Certification will not have a direct impact on achieving sustainable management, but it can have an indirect effect. A number of macro-level criteria required for certification, such as the legal and policy framework, can be based on the national level data provided within national criteria and indicators. Where this is the case, certification should use national level programmes directly or through related forest management unit level criteria and indicators. It should see them as complementary rather than as competitive.
Greatest interest seems likely to continue to come from Europe and to a lesser extent North America.
Certification may become a basic requirement of access to some markets - or at least to some market segments. Thus African suppliers who are focussed, or wish to focus, on these markets must seriously consider the question of certification. They should also participate in the criteria and indicator processes and initiatives and where appropriate use the complementarities and synergies that can exist between the different actions.