From government to governance? Forest certification and crisis displacement in Ontario, Canada

Discussions of forest certification have tended to characterize certification systems as a prime example of the hollowing out of the state and a shift from government to governance. The continued contention that certification is a product of a retreating state has implications for how we understand democratic participation and fails to pay attention to the ways in which such an arrangement benefits the state in extra-economic terms. The case of forest certification in Ontario, Canada problematizes this emphasis and provides, rather, a case study in how certification is less a shift in power from state to market and more a reconfiguration of state power in the face of environmentally induced legitimacy crises.

► Certification may not involve a shift in power from state to non-state actors. ► Certification may represent a reconfiguration of state power in times of crisis. ► Democratic deficit may result from the appearance of fractured accountability. ► Displacement of crisis across scales may act to reaffirm state authority/power.