Is there a price premium for certified wood? Empirical evidence from log auction data in Japan

We investigate the price premium on certified wood from sustainable forests, using data from more than 38,000 log transactions in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. We found a positive and statistically significant effect of certification. The premium added by certification was 1.4% more than the price of conventional logs. This was well in the lower range of additional willingness to pay found in previous studies that used stated preference techniques. The effect of certification varies by wood species. The premium for cedar is 4.0%, while that for cypress is statistically insignificant.