Two decades of stakeholder voices: Exploring engagement in Romania's FSC forest management certification

Stakeholders' engagement in forest management decision-making is a critical tool for enhancing the business acceptability of the forest sector, and the Forest Stewardship Certification (FSC) scheme proactively involves stakeholders in its implementation. Based on the stakeholder theory, this study examined stakeholder's engagement in the FSC forest management certification in Romania over the past two decades to identify the extent and inputs of their involvement in the process. Using in-depth content analysis and text mining techniques, we explored publicly available information from 209 public reports covering 45 forest management certificates. According to data available in 178 reports, the average number of stakeholders notified per audit was 50.7. However, response evidence was found in 128 reports, with an average of 1.2 responses per audit, suggesting a limited engagement in the process. Additional stakeholders' feedback was received as part of the on-site audits, with an average of 10.2 responses per audit. Given the inconsistencies in the reporting format between certification bodies, we set a structured framework to analyse the findings on stakeholders' engagement from different report sections. The employed analytical framework sheds light on stakeholder and legitimacy theories in forest certification. Our findings highlighted stakeholders' predominantly positive feedback tone, evenly distributed across all stakeholder types and the four analysis domains. Negative feedback accounted for only 9.4% of the findings, highlighting areas for improvement for certificate holders, companies in the timber supply chain and public authorities. This study's findings may assist FSC in refining its stakeholder engagement practices, contributing to enhanced participation and better risk mitigation of non-compliance with standard requirements. • Forest certification audits fuelled a significant boost in stakeholder engagement. • Effective engagement is limited compared to the number of notified stakeholders. • Stakeholders' feedback on certified forest management in Romania is mostly positive. • Addressing negative feedback from forest certification mitigates non-compliance risks. • Stakeholder analysis would benefit from a standardized audit reporting template.