The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) partially came about due to the failure by an intergovernmental process to agree on a global forest compact during the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio and the question of “what is sustainable forestry?” In 1993 the Council was formed by a group of loggers, foresters, environmentalists, sociologists wanting to change the practice of sustainable forestry worldwide. 

FSC is the only independent, 3^rd party certification system that protects the environment and local communities. Independent certification organizations are accredited by the FSC to carry out assessments of forest management to determine if standards have been met.  

                                                                                                                                                                      
This trusted symbol tells you several things:                               

1. The FSC standards ensure environmental, social responsibility and economic viability by maintaining economic well being of the workers and communities, conserving biological diversity and protecting old-growth forests and allowing indigenous people to keep the rights to their land.

2. The most significant forested ecosystems are identified in every certified forestry operation and care is taken to ensure that values such as biodiversity, sensitive aquatic habitats, unique species and plant and animal communities are all protected.

3. The social and long-term welfare of forest workers and communities has been maintained or enhanced. They get a living wage, for example, instead of being exploited.

4. Forest resources and services are recognized and used efficiently. This certification would recognize, for example, that forests absorb carbon dioxide from the Earth's atmosphere - carbon dioxide is a primary global warming-causing greenhouse gas. Therefore, forests would always be maintained at a certain size so that they could continue to perform this vital task.

5. Safeguards are in place to protect rare, threatened or endangered species and their habitat (e.g., nesting and feeding areas).

6. The landowner has a long-term management plan in place. This means that he or she sees the forest as a fixture and not simply as a short-term path to profit and nurtures the land accordingly.

7. A team accredited by the Forest Stewardship Council conducts regular monitoring and assessment studies of the forest that has been certified. These teams study forest yield to ensure that harvesting for timber leaves behind a viable forest, what impacts management plans are having and whether the environmental and social integrity of the forest is being maintained.

8. High conservation value trees are retained in the forest. Don't be surprised if you find old growth or at least trees that are 50 years or older in some certified forests. Annual monitoring is required for high conservation value forests to asses the effectiveness of the measures used to maintain or enhance the conservation attributes.

9. If this timber does come from a plantation, then it is because the plantation has had the effect of reducing pressure on forests and has promoted the restoration and conservation of natural forests.

Learn more about the Forest Stewardship Council