Objectives With the development of international trade in forest products, there has been a growing focus on the sustainable development of forests. As an important institutional arrangement to promote the sustainable development of forests, exploring the impact of forest certification on the trade of forest products is of great significance to the high-quality development of forest products trade, which is also in line with China's "Carbon peaking and carbon neutrality" goal.

Methods Based on the trade gravity model, the Poisson pseudo-maximum likelihood(PPML) model was used to quantitatively analyze the impact of forest certification on China's forest product exports, using export data from China and 95 major forest product trading countries from 2001 to 2021. Meanwhile, the forest resource endowment was included as a mediator in the research framework to study the impact mechanism of forest certification on China's forest product exports.

Results Forest certification in China and timber source countries had a significant role in promoting China's forest product exports, and environmental standards in importing countries showed barrier effects on China's forest product exports; Further mechanism test showed that forest certification promoted China's forest product exports by improving China's forest resource endowment. The heterogeneity analysis showed that forest certification played a greater role in promoting the exports of processed forest products and countries with high environmental standards. However, The forest certification of the wood source countries only showed significant promotion effects on the export of high-standard countries.

Conclusions We should continue promoting the development of forest certification, and actively improve China's forest certification system to increase international recognition. To realize sustainable forest development, we need to strengthen forest resource protection and improve our forest resource endowment. Moreover, certified enterprises should be provided financial and technical support to enhance the green international competitiveness of Chinese forest products.