FSC Turns 25 – It’s Time to Celebrate and Innovate!

By Kim Carstensen, Director General, FSC International

June 1992 was a month I will never forget: the Danish people voted no to the EU Maastricht Treaty, Denmark won the European football championship for the first and only time and I took part in the United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro as a member of the Danish government delegation. A unique month!

That Earth Summit set the agenda for sustainable development for many years to come and led to several key international treaties. However, it could not reach any meaningful, binding agreement on sustainable management of the world’s forests which was a major disappointment. Tropical forests loss was top of the agenda, but governments failed to take meaningful action.

FSC did not come out of the Earth Summit. Preparation to establish FSC had started years before, but I’m sure that the disappointment strengthened the resolve to find other solutions. If governments were not willing to solve the problem, other actors needed to step up. And FSC was a clear answer to this forest loss challenge, by offering a market-driven solution.

Honestly, when I first heard about FSC in 1994 I did not believe it would gain traction. The idea was brilliant, and I could see it becoming a great tool for environmental and social NGOs. It gave them an alternative to boycotting when they campaigned against deforestation, human rights violations and other unacceptable problems. But I did not believe FSC would ever become a key driver in mainstream markets, and for many years it did not.

In the 1990s I worked for WWF in Denmark and we promoted FSC in our campaigns. But Denmark is not really a forest country, so over the years, our attention moved to other issues. I lost track of FSC a bit – I bought certified products when I could but did not do much more. It was only when I applied for the FSC Director General position in 2012 that I began to look at it again.

And imagine my surprise! In the meantime, FSC had become a major force for good with a very important membership, 150 million hectares of forests certified across the world. I found products bearing FSC labels on almost every shelf in shops.

Since 2012, FSC has kept growing. We have become the world’s most trusted sustainable forest management solution. Our 25th anniversary provides an excellent opportunity to look back with pride at what we have achieved and to look forward with excitement at the next challenges we need to meet.

read more/source: https://fsc.org/en/news/fsc-turns-25-its-time-celebrate-and-innovate

Related Posts

Cowbell Brewing Co. Wins the SFI-Certified Wood Award Celebrating the Beauty and Benefits of Wood

owbell Brewing Co. won the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) Certified Wood Award today for using responsibly sourced wood products in the design of North America’s first carbon neutral brewery. The award is part of the Wood Design & Building Awards program. Allan Avis Architects received the award at the Toronto Wood Solutions Fair in Toronto on November 22. Cowbell chose SFI-certified products for this beautiful brewery, restaurant and event space south of Blyth, a village in southwestern Ontario. It features a closed-loop brewery and an on-site carbon sequestration initiative.

High-performing Single-stream Recycling Systems Recover More Recyclable Materials than Mixed-waste Processing

An economic and policy study commissioned by the American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) and developed by engineering firm Burns & McDonnell shows that high-performing single-stream recycling systems recover more paper and other recyclable materials than mixed-waste facilities that combine wet and organic waste with dry recyclables. Mixed-waste processing recovers much less mill-quality paper, but more metal and plastic, and requires 2.5 times the facility capital cost of single-stream recycling.

Maine SFI Implementation Committee Wins Award For Community Leadership, Education Outreach And Growth

The Sustainable Forestry Initiative Inc. (SFI) announced today that the Maine SFI Implementation Committee is the winner of the 2017 SFI Implementation Committee Achievement Award. This award, announced at the SFI Annual Conference, recognizes the exceptional work of the grassroots network of 34 SFI Implementation Committees across the U.S. and Canada. Groups ranging from Habitat for Humanity and Boy Scouts to universities and Ducks Unlimited Canada work with SFI Implementation Committees. "Education and outreach have long been a strength of the Maine SFI Implementation Committee. Every year we hold multiple events and workshops that involve hundreds of people and benefit our communities. Having these efforts recognized with an SFI award is hugely gratifying," said Pat Sirois, the Maine SFI Coordinator. "This award really belongs to the network of countless people who care about Maine's forests. We all share the benefits of the healthy, productive forests that are such a significant part of the quality of life in our state." Click Read More below for additional detail.
Back To Top
×Close search
Search