Forest Certification Update: The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)

In 2004 and 2005 Dovetail Partners released a series of reports outlining the major forest certification programs, followed in April 2007 by a report highlighting subsequent changes within the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) program. This latest report considers recent changes to the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) program.

In September 2004, when Dovetail first reported on the FSC, the program was already established as a global endeavor with nearly 125 million acres of forest certified in 62 countries, and over 4,000 companies certified to sell FSC-labeled product. Since then the figures have more or less doubled. As of June 2008, FSC reports a certified forest area of 280 million acres, and 9,106 chain-of-custody certificates held in 79 countries.

FSC remains the leading forest certification program in terms of market penetration and is the only program that can be described as truly global in the sense of applying the same set of Principles and Criteria to all certificate holders regardless of country or region. The FSC includes certified forests and plantations in tropical, temperate and boreal regions, and chain of custody certified manufacturers and suppliers worldwide.