We might not get round to sending a card, but the TTJ would like to wish the Forest Stewardship Council many happy returns.
The FSC, which arguably pioneered forestry and timber environmental certification, celebrates its 10th anniversary on September 10. From a standing start a decade ago, it now has nearly 50 million hectares certified in 62 countries. Hundreds of traders and retailers also have FSC chain of custody accreditation and there are more than 20,000 FSC-certified products on sale worldwide.
The FSC evolved as an alternative to the proposition from some of the more strident environmental groups that logging should be banned in areas where they felt forests were endangered. This would be backed by boycotts of wood products from countries that failed to take such action.
The FSC thought this strategy was counter-productive. As the WWF‘s forest programme director Chris Elliot recently wrote, “If they can’t sell timber, the temptation [for some countries] is to cut down forests and replace them with agricultural crops.”
The FSC’s alternative was a to create a scheme for labelling timber from forests managed to specific standards – to use “market incentives to encourage good management”.
The other spin-off of the creation of the FSC has been the emergence of alternative forestry certification schemes. Some evolved because forestry or timber businesses felt the FSC’s scheme didn’t suit them. The feeling that it was principally shaped by environmentalists has also played a part in certification proliferation.
Some of the FSC’s supporters say these other schemes are not as thorough and confuse the consumer. The general timber trade view is that it’s horses for courses. The FSC’s is a fine certification scheme, but a monopoly in any area is a bad thing and different regions, cultures and forestry environments need different schemes.
But, whatever sort of certification you’ve signed up to, the FSC still deserves our congratulations for its achievements. So, happy birthday FSC!
