The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is the world’s most trusted sustainable forest
management solution.
FSC has over 26 years of experience in setting the gold standard for sustainable forest management around the world.
FSC’s unique democratic standard-setting process enables forest owners, communities and businesses to jointly make decisions on issues impacting forests today and in the future. This ensures inclusivity in finding the best solutions.
Through our global standard, unrivalled stakeholder engagement and support from businesses and NGOs, we are the world’s most credible solution for sustainable forest management; trusted to secure better outcomes for the markets, communities and forests for today and future generations
Meeting the rights and needs of the
present generation without compromising those of future generations.
FSC will promote environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial, and economically viable management of the world’s forests.
- Social: Respectful and Supportive
- Ecological: sustainable & biologically diverse
- Economic: responsible and profitable
Everyday, we work towards the care of our forests and those who rely on them by protecting plant and animal species, ensuring Indigenous Peoples’ rights, requiring forest workers’ safety, and much more.
We achieve this through FSC certification, to ensure that forests around the world are responsibly managed—with certification being a voluntary, market-based tool, verified from forest origin through supply chain.
FSC provides two main types of certification:
To earn FSC certification, an organization must meet FSC’s standards, which are based on ten core principles that cover issues ranging from environmental impact to community relations and workers’ rights to monitoring and assessment processes.
- 1 Compliance with laws
- 2 Workers’ rights and employment conditions
- 3 Indigenous Peoples’ rights
- 4 Community relations
- 5 Benefits from the forest
- 6 Environmental values and impact
- 7 Management planning
- 8 Monitoring and assessment
- 9 High conservation values
- 10 Implementation of management activities
An independent organization audits the forest or supply chain to ensure it meets the FSC standards.
Each of the three labels provides information about the nature and origin of the materials
used to make the finished and labelled product:
FSC 100%: All the materials used in products, or part of a product, bearing this label are sourced from certified forests that are managed according to FSC’s rigorous standards.
FSC Recycled: Products that bear this label contain 100% recycled content (either post-consumer or pre-consumer reclaimed materials).
FSC Mix: Products bearing this label are made using a mixture of materials from FSC-certified forests, recycled materials, or FSC controlled wood. While controlled wood is not from FSC-certified forests, it mitigates the risk of the material originating from unacceptable sources, such as deforestation
By choosing products with the FSC label, consumers can be sure that the items they are purchasing have not been manufactured at the expense of the forest, or the animals, plants, and people who rely on it. When consumers purchase FSC-certified products, they are directly supporting responsible forest management.