The author of the present study published a series of annotated Teakwood pronouncements, or variations of truth , as Treemail Internet circulars to professionals worldwide, between January and July of 1996. These Internet circulars were found to produce an increasing pressure on the Teakwood contract partners and their associated organizations, much in analogy to a feedback loop in sound reproduction. One example of the pressure from the feedback process is found in a complaints procedure that the Rainforest Alliance felt compelled to invoke and execute, although no complaint was ever filed. This feedback process, including the Rainforest Alliance complaints procedure, is analyzed. The quality of the data provided in the Internet circulars was safeguarded by the peer pressure of the professional recipients worldwide.
Independence is accepted as being a cornerstone to third party certification.
This study raises grave concerns over the meaning, interpretations and perceptions that are attributed to the term independence under the FSC accreditation umbrella. The study describes the elasticity of interpretations attributed to the term with respect to the WWF involvement in the case of Flor y Fauna. The certification of forest management and the labeling of forest products count among today s top issues in the field of international forestry. In 1998, the World Bank and the WWF, an organization that describes itself as having played a key role in setting up the FSC, formed a global alliance for forest conservation and sustainable use, which includes the aim to bring the management of an additional 200 million hectares of the world s forests under independent certification by the year 2005. This aim of the current joint World Bank and WWF global initiative is a parameter of the relevance of the subject matter of the present study.