FSC-certified forest management benefits large mammals compared to non-FSC

More than a quarter of the world’s tropical forests are exploited for timber1. Logging impacts biodiversity in these ecosystems, primarily through the creation of forest roads that facilitate hunting for wildlife over extensive areas. Forest management certification schemes such as the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) are expected to mitigate impacts on biodiversity, but so far very little is known about the effectiveness of FSC certification because of research design challenges, predominantly limited sample sizes2,3. Here we provide this evidence by using 1.3 million camera-trap photos of 55 mammal species in 14 logging concessions in western equatorial Africa. We observed higher mammal encounter rates in FSC-certified than in non-FSC logging concessions. The effect was most pronounced for species weighing more than 10 kg and for species of high conservation priority such as the critically endangered forest elephant and western lowland gorilla. Across the whole mammal community, non-FSC concessions contained proportionally more rodents and other small species than did FSC-certified concessions. The first priority for species protection should be to maintain unlogged forests with effective law enforcement, but for logged forests our findings provide convincing data that FSC-certified forest management is less damaging to the mammal community than is non-FSC forest management. This study provides strong evidence that FSC-certified forest management or equivalently stringent requirements and controlling mechanisms should become the norm for timber extraction to avoid half-empty forests dominated by rodents and other small species.


7) Management Planning -
The Organization shall have a management plan consistent with its policies and objectives and proportionate to scale, intensity and risks of its management activities.The management plan shall be implemented and kept up to date based on monitoring information in order to promote adaptive management.The associated planning and procedural documentation shall be sufficient to guide staff, inform affected stakeholders and interested stakeholders and to justify management decisions.

7.1)
The Organization shall, proportionate to scale, intensity and risk of its management activities, set policies (visions and values) and objectives for management, which are environmentally sound, socially beneficial and economically viable.Summaries of these policies and objectives shall be incorporated into the management plan, and publicized.

7.4)
The Organization shall update and revise periodically the management planning and procedural documentation to incorporate the results of monitoring and evaluation, stakeholder engagement or new scientific and technical information, as well as to respond to changing environmental, social and economic circumstances.
8) Monitoring and Assessment -The Organization shall demonstrate that, progress towards achieving the management objectives, the impacts of management activities and the condition of the Management Unit, are monitored and evaluated proportionate to the scale, intensity and risk of management activities, in order to implement adaptive management.

8.1)
The Organization shall monitor the implementation of its management plan, including its policies and objectives, its progress with the activities planned, and the achievement of its verifiable targets.

8.2)
The Organization shall monitor and evaluate the environmental and social impacts of the activities carried out in the Management Unit, and changes in its environmental condition.

8.
3) The Organization shall analyze the results of monitoring and evaluation and feed the outcomes of this analysis back into the planning process.9) High Conservation Values -The Organization shall maintain and/or enhance the High Conservation Values in the Management Unit through applying the precautionary approach.

9.1)
The Organization, through engagement with affected stakeholders, interested stakeholders and other means and sources, shall assess and record the presence and status of the following High Conservation Values in the Management Unit, proportionate to the scale, intensity and risk of impacts of management activities, and likelihood of the occurrence of the High Conservation Values: HCV 1 -Species diversity.Concentrations of biological diversity including endemic species, and rare, threatened or endangered species, that are significant at global, regional or national levels.
HCV 2 -Landscape-level ecosystems and mosaics.Intact forest landscapes and large landscape-level ecosystems and ecosystem mosaics that are significant at global, regional or national levels, and that contain viable populations of the great majority of the naturally occurring species in natural patterns of distribution and abundance.
HCV 4 -Critical ecosystem services.Basic ecosystem services in critical situations, including protection of water catchments and control of erosion of vulnerable soils and slopes.
HCV 5 -Community needs.Sites and resources fundamental for satisfying the basic necessities of local communities or Indigenous Peoples (for livelihoods, health, nutrition, water, etc.), identified through engagement with these communities or Indigenous Peoples.
HCV 6 -Cultural values.Sites, resources, habitats and landscapes of global or national cultural, archaeological or historical significance, and/or of critical cultural, ecological, economic or religious/sacred importance for the traditional cultures of local communities or Indigenous Peoples, identified through engagement with these local communities or Indigenous Peoples.10) Implementation of Management Activities -Management activities conducted by or for The Organization for the Management Unit shall be selected and implemented consistent with The Organization's economic, environmental and social policies and objectives and in compliance with the Principles and Criteria collectively.

10.10)
The Organization shall manage infrastructural development, transport activities and silviculture so that water resources and soils are protected, and disturbance of and damage to rare and threatened species, habitats, ecosystems and landscape values are prevented, mitigated and/or repaired.

Supplementary Table 2. National criteria and indicators of the FSC standards regarding hunting of Gabon and The Republic of Congo.
Comparable indicators and criteria are highlighted with numbers in superscript.For a complete overview of all principles and criteria, as well as verifiers and indicators, see the FSC National Forest Stewardship Standard of The Gabonese Republic (2020) and The Republic of Congo (2020).

Republic of Congo
Indicator 1.4.1 1 Measures are implemented to provide protection from unauthorized or illegal harvesting, hunting, fishing, trapping, collecting, settlement and other unauthorized activities, notably: 1) Security gates on main forest roads and/ or control of access to high-risk areas; 2) Closure of temporal roads after harvesting; 3) Surveillance patrols on forest road to detect and report to the forest administration, any illegal access to the forest; and 4) Designation of personnel and resources to rapidly detect and monitor illegal activities.
Indicator 1.4.1 1 Measures are implemented to provide protection from unauthorized or illegal harvesting, hunting, fishing, trapping, collecting, settlement and other unauthorized activities, notably: 1) Security gates on main forest roads and/ or control of access to high-risk areas; 2) Closure of temporal roads after harvesting; 3) Surveillance patrols on forest road to detect and prevent illegal access to the forest; and 4) Designation of personnel and resources to rapidly detect and monitor illegal activities during the exercise of legal user rights.

Indicator 6.4.4 2&7
The Organization puts in place mechanisms to ensure that: 1) Hunting, trapping and fishing are prevented in accordance with applicable regulations; 2) Applicable national and/or international regulations on protection, hunting, fishing and trade in animal species or parts (trophies) are known and complied with; 3) There are internal regulations prohibiting and penalizing illegal hunting, fishing and collecting within the MU, and the transport and trade in bush meat and firearms in the concession-holder's vehicles; 4) There are internal procedures to control illegal hunting, fishing and collecting practices within the Management Unit.

Criterion 6.6 3
The Organization shall effectively maintain the continued existence of naturally occurring native species and genotypes, and prevent losses of biological diversity, especially through habitat management in the Management Unit.The Organization shall demonstrate that effective measures are in place to manage and control hunting, fishing, trapping and collecting.

Criterion 6.6 3
The Organization shall effectively maintain the continued existence of naturally occurring native species and genotypes, and prevent losses of biological diversity, especially through habitat management in the Management Unit.The Organization shall demonstrate that effective measures are in place to manage and control hunting, fishing, trapping and collecting.
Indicator 6.6.4 4 Effective measures are taken to manage and control hunting, fishing, trapping and collecting activities to ensure that naturally occurring native species, their diversity within species and their natural distribution are maintained.
Indicator 6.6.4 4 Effective measures are taken, and personnel appointed, to manage and control hunting, fishing, trapping and collecting activities to ensure that the diversity and natural distribution of native species is maintained.
Indicator 6.6.5 5 A system of regular and punctual controls is implemented to ensure hunting policies are respected.
Indicator 6.6.5 2 Mechanisms for wildlife protection are in place: Applicable national and/or international regulations on protection, hunting and trade in animal species or parts (trophies) shall be known and complied with.
Indicator 6.6.6 6 Effective mitigation measures are in place to ensure that workers do not increase the practice of hunting, trapping or collecting of bush meat or wild fish.

Indicator 6.6.6 7
There is an internal regulation banning and punishing the transportation of and trade in bush meat, firearms, munitions and hunters in the vehicles belonging to The Organization and its sub-contractors, and governing the keeping of firearms on The Organization's premises.This regulation shall be known, disseminated and complied with.
Indicator 6.6.7 5 A system of regular and punctual controls to ensure hunting policies are respected is implemented.
Indicator 6.6.8 6 Effective mitigation measures are in place to regulate the practices of hunting, trapping or collecting of bush meat or wild fish by the workers of The Organization.
Supplementary Table 4. List of tested models to assess potential covariate influence of geographic and camera trap site covariates.Linear mixed-effects models for mammal encounter rates ('rai') were specified with concession pairs ('pair'), concessions ('sitename') and cameras ('camera') as random effects, whereby cameras were nested within concessions within concession pairs, in a multi-level random effect structure.Geographic covariates included elevation ('elevation'), distance to roads ('dist_roads'), distance to rivers ('dist_rivers'), distance to settlements ('dist_settlements') and distance to protected areas ('dist_protected areas').All geographic covariates were also tested with quadratic terms.Camera trap site covariates included the availability of water within 50 m ('water') or fruiting trees within 30 m ('fruit_trees'), visibility and the presence of trails or paths ('type_of_site').Relative importance of models was tested using a model-selection approach based on minimization of Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC) values, reported alongside the number of parameters (npar) and model structures.Models are sorted by ascending BIC in separate analyses for all species combined, for body mass classes, taxonomic groups, and IUCN Red List categories.