Origins of the Forest Stewardship Council,
and how it works

Forest certification and the Forest Stewardship Council

Forest certification is an economic incentive for forest managers to practice responsible and sustainable forestry. A credible certification program, in which an independent third party conducts an audit of those practices, confirms to customers that the forest is indeed well managed. Some programs include a logo attached or printed on the finished product (FSC, CSA is on its way), others do not: it depends on provisions for a "chain of custody", which allows to trace the product's forest of origin. Some programs establish a performance threshold which the forest manager must meet (FSC, CSA), whereas others require the company to establish its own management objectives and to put in place an appropriate system to meet them (ISO 14000).

FSC certification is a voluntary program which identifies well-managed forests according to ecological, economic and social issues. This independant program is applied by third-party certification bodies, and is based on a set of Principles and Criteria for forest Stewardship, developped by forest owners and managers, aboriginal people, and representatives of industry, environmental and community organisations. Once it is established that a forest manager's operations and the following chain of custody along the production line meet FSC-approved standards, the forest under this management can claim itself to be third-party certified, and the products issued from it can carry the FSC "checkmark and tree" logo (which you can find at the top of this page). This trademark, known internationally, informs consumers that the product comes from a well-managed forest, and that they are therefore encouraging socially and environmentally responsible forestry. The Forest Stewardship Council certification program is the most thorough to date, working at both regional and international levels, and tracing the products from the forest to the consumer.

Origins of the FSC

The FSC was founded in 1994 by representatives of environmental groups, retailers, industry, and social and community groups, in the wake of the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.

The FSC identified ten Principles for forest stewardship, and over fifty related criteria, which constitute the core of its policies. They have a sufficiently wide scope to be relevant all over the world, except Antartica. Regional standards must follow these Principles and Criteria (see below), and anyone seeking FSC certification must meet a minimum of these criteria (it is not required to meet all of them; some are unavoidable, others allow for more flexibilty, requiring to be met on the long run).

The FSC is a membership-based organisation. Members must be committed to the Principles and Criteria. (Membership costs 75$US for an individual and 150$US for an organisation, annually.) Applications are evaluated by the FSC Board of Directors. Membership is balanced equally between northern and southern hemispheres, on the one hand, and between three "chambers" on the other: the economic chamber groups commercial interersts; the social chamber includes community and First Nations groups; and the environmental chamber, which houses environmental group representatives.

The Board of Directors, whose composition is also balanced between hemispheres and chambers, meet every three months, in addition to extraordinary assemblies and a general annual meeting.

How the FSC works

The FSC has two roles:

• To approve regional standards, developped with a region's stakeholders, and make sure they meet the Principles and Criteria and FSC policies. The Quebec FSC Standards Development Initiative has the mandate to coordinate the development of such standards for Quebec.
• To accredit certification bodies, the third-party organisations who can deliver FSC forest management and chain-of-custody certificates following an audit. (LUSO Consult is one such certification body, illustrated in the example below).