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The Forest Stewardship Council [FSC] is an international non-profit organization that offers forest certification on an international basis. FSC was founded in 1993 by representatives from environmental and conservation groups, the timber industry, the forestry profession, indigenous peoples` organizations, community forestry groups and forest product certification organizations from 25 countries.

Although it is international in scope, FSC also supports the development of national and regional standards that are consistent with the international values and requirements adopted by the scheme. FSC has developed guidelines for developing regional certification standards to guide working groups in this process. These standards are developed by national groups [which are active in 40 countries] and regional working groups, which work to achieve consensus amongst the different stakeholders involved in the standards development process.

In addition to standards development, the national groups are also responsible for providing public information, offering a national dispute resolution mechanism, and monitoring certification organizations to ensure compliance with FSC requirements. The U.S. working group was established in 1995, while the Canadian group was created in 1996.

Mission

The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) shall promote environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial, and economically viable management of the world's forests.

Environmentally appropriate forest management ensures that the harvest of timber and non-timber products maintains the forest's biodiversity, productivity and ecological processes.

Socially beneficial forest management helps both local people and society at large to enjoy long term benefits and also provides strong incentives to local people to sustain the forest resources and adhere to long-term management plans.

Economically viable forest management means that forest operations are structured and managed so as to be sufficiently profitable, without generating financial profit at the expense of the forest resources, the ecosystem or affected communities. The tension between the need to generate adequate financial returns and the principles of responsible forest operations can be reduced through efforts to market forest products for their best value.

Technical Aspects

FSC has developed a set of global Principles and Criteria for forest management. There are 10 Principles and 57 Criteria that address legal aspects, indigenous rights, labor rights, multiple benefits, and environmental impacts surrounding forest management. Although the Principles and Criteria are applicable to all forest ecological types throughout the world, FSC encourages national working groups to adapt these Principles and Criteria to local ecological, economic and social conditions to create regional or national standards.

The accreditation process is based on FSC developed procedures and standards to evaluate whether certification bodies can provide an independent and competent evaluation service. Additionally, FSC determines which organizations qualify as accredited auditors under the scheme. FSC accredited certification bodies are required to evaluate all forests aiming for certification according to the FSC Principles and Criteria for Forest Stewardship.

FSC is a global forest certification scheme. FSC accredited certifiers have certified 520 Forest management companies, who between them manage 131,272,565 acres [53,126,007 hectares] of forests in 78 countries around the world. These forest management certificates cover temperate, boreal and tropical forests, publicly and privately owned land, and natural and plantation forests. Of these, 123 forest management companies are in the USA and Canada, covering a total of 30,574,255 acres.