What does it mean to be FSC Certified?
The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is an international non-profit, multi stakeholder organization that promotes responsible management of the world's forests. It’s mission is to encourage “environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial, and economically viable management.”
The FSC has published five goals to advance their mission:
Advance globally responsible forest management.
Ensure equitable access to the benefits of FSC systems.
Ensure integrity, credibility and transparency of the FSC system.
Create business value for products from FSC certified forests.
Strengthen the global network to deliver on goals 1 through 4.
These goals are promoted, managed and developed through six program areas: forests, chain of custody, social policy, monitoring and evaluation, quality assurance and ecosystem services. The FSC claims that forests managed to its standards offer benefits to both local and wider communities. These are said to include cleaner air and water, and a contribution to mitigating the effects of climate change. Directly or indirectly, FSC addresses issues such as illegal logging, deforestation and global warming and some reports indicate positive effects on economic development, environmental conservation, poverty alleviation and social and political empowerment
By using the FSC logo, it signifies that a product comes from responsible sources. The FSC label is used on a wide range of timber and non-timber products and aims to give consumers the option of supporting responsible forestry.
The FSC has 25 years of experience in sustainable forest management and uses their expertise to promote the responsible management of the world’s forests, bringing together experts from the environmental, economic and social circles. Over the past 25 years, the FSC has been successful through establishing ten core principles: compliance with laws, workers’ rights & employment conditions, indigienous peoples’ rights, community relations, benefits from the forest, environmental values & impact, management planning, monitoring & assessment, high conservation values, and finally, implementation of management activities.
Through working with Restore, we can help your company become accredited by this internationally recognized standard.
