Forest Certification as a Market Instrument for Sustainable Development: The Role of FSC, PEFC, and the EUDR in the Polish Wood Products Market

Forest-product certification now operates at the intersection of private sustainability governance, market access, and mandatory due diligence. This structured narrative review asks how Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) certification, together with the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), affect competitiveness and the distribution of compliance costs in Polish business-to-business and export-oriented wood-product supply chains. A documented revision-stage search and screening procedure produced an evidence base of 55 peer-reviewed, regulatory, statistical, and sectoral sources. The analytical framework combines private-governance theory, stakeholder conflict analysis, and relationship marketing to examine information asymmetry, bargaining power, cost allocation, and market access. The Polish case is characterised by a large publicly owned forest resource, extensive but overlapping FSC and PEFC coverage, and strongly export-oriented downstream industries. Certification can reduce buyer verification costs, support supplier qualification, improve traceability, and protect access to demanding markets. However, fixed audit, documentation, digitalisation, and certified-material costs are borne disproportionately by small and medium-sized enterprises, especially where lead buyers do not share adaptation costs. EUDR strengthens these asymmetries because certified status can support, but does not replace, legal due diligence. The review contributes a governance-based explanation of why the same sustainability requirements can generate resilience and market access for digitally mature exporters while creating entry barriers, supplier exclusion, and concentration risks for smaller firms. Policy support should therefore combine clear demand signals, group certification, shared traceability infrastructure, advisory services, and buyer–supplier cost-sharing arrangements.