Best known organisations on sustainability - FSC and PEFC

FSC: Forrest Stewartship Council (1993)

• The Forest Stewardship Council A.C. (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 resource, 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 the full range of forest products and services for their best value.

Reasons to buy FSC certified products:

• You can buy wood products, from all types of forest, with a clear conscience when you see the FSC logo. FSC labelled products are made with consideration for people, wildlife and the environment.
• The FSC label guarantees that the trees that are harvested are replaced or allowed to regenerate naturally.
• Parts of the forest are protected entirely, in order to protect rare animals and plants.
• FSC protects the rights of indigenous people to use the forest. If they have sacred sites in the forest these are exempt from felling.
• The forest owner must use local workers to run the forest, and provide training, safety equipment and a decent salary. The forest owner is often obliged to support the community in other ways, such as through the development of schools.
• FSC is a market-based initiative which also ensures better conditions for the forest and the people whose livelihoods depend on it.
• FSC gives an assurance that future generations will be able to enjoy the benefits of the forest.
• All the wood is tracked from the forest to the store. Every link between the forest and the consumer is certified to make it clearly identifiable which wood is FSC certified and which is not.
• FSC is the only wood certification scheme endorsed by the major environmental charities, including WWF, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and The Woodland Trust.
• The FSC label is not only available on wood for furniture. It can also be found on floors, decking, paper, printed matter, charcoal, kitchen utensils, even venison and footballs!

PEFC: Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (1999)

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  PEFC's aim is to assure that the world's forests are managed sustainably and that their functions are protected for present and future generations.
• PEFC certified timber and paper products are an independently verified assurance to consumers and companies that they are buying wood products from sustainably managed forests. By choosing PEFC, buyers can help combat illegal logging.
• PEFC's role, as an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organisation, is to secure that the same high standards are applied by all its endorsed certification systems globally and thus by forest managers, paper and timber companies and their external certifiers.

Vision

A world in which people manage forests sustainably.

Mission

To give society confidence that people manage forests sustainably.

Purpose

Through the endorsement of national certification systems, PEFC motivates and enables people to sustainably manage their forests and works to provide a market for the products of those forests.