The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) brand is probably the most familiar of all forest certification brands in the UK. The FSC tree and checkmark logo feature on many wood products in DIY stores and, if you look carefully at TV advertisements for wood products from the likes of Homebase and Focus, the FSC logo can usually be seen in a corner. Or if you are a Harry Potter fan, take a look at the logo on the cover of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows due out in July. So what’s behind this logo?

FSC is an independent not-for-profit organisation that promotes the responsible management of forests through the development of forest management standards, a voluntary certification system and a trademark to provide market recognition. To date, FSC standards have been applied to around 90 million ha of forests in more than 60 countries, and take-up is growing steadily.

Manufacturers and distributors of wood and paper products must have chain of custody certification in order to label and sell FSC-certified products. The number of FSC chain of custody certificates issued in the UK has risen from fewer than 300 in 2003 to around 750.

FSC International is a membership organisation with a secretariat based in Bonn, Germany. In April, FSC’s membership extended to around 680 organisations and individuals from 82 countries. The FSC General Assembly of members is the highest decision-making body. FSC organises members into three chambers with equal voting rights – social, economic and environmental – and each chamber is subdivided depending on whether they derive from southern (low and middle income) or northern (high income) countries.

FSC has developed a set of International Principles and Criteria for Forest Stewardship (FSC P&C). The 10 principles and 46 criteria establish a set of social and environmental requirements for forest management including coverage of legal conformance, forest management planning and monitoring, forestry training, recognition of customary land rights, maintenance of forest cover, sustained yield production, controls on the use of exotic species, biodiversity conservation, protection of special sites, rural employment opportunities, protection of soil and water courses, controls on use of chemicals, and health and safety issues.

With its focus on international application of a single set of forestry principles and criteria which emphasise social and environmental objectives, FSC is attractive to environmental organisations. The FSC environmental chamber comprises around 128 environmental groups, including WWF, Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth.

FSC-certified karri from South Africa was used in the Cardiff Bay development at Penarth

Membership of FSC’s social and economic chambers at international level has been more limited, both in terms of absolute numbers and in the range of interests represented. Nevertheless, the economic chamber features several large household names, such as IKEA, B&Q, Home Depot, OBI, and Intergamma. These companies have been attracted to FSC as it provides a single tool for supply chain management, a single recognisable forestry brand, and an effective mechanism to avoid conflict with the larger international campaigning organisations. Some large commercial forest owners and managers in several countries have also been encouraged to join but, overall, only a small proportion of forest sector, trade and industry organisations have been encouraged to become members.

In addition to the international membership, the national initiatives network comprises independent organisations which are formally affiliated with the FSC and its global network. These initiatives – 43 at present – are responsible for locally adapting the FSC international principles so that they better reflect national and regional forestry circumstances in the countries where they are applied. So far FSC has endorsed national or regional certification standards in 26 countries.

In the past two years, the FSC International secretariat has been restructured to establish a separate accreditation programme, now operated by Accreditation Services International (ASI), a Germany-registered company owned by the FSC. ASI is responsible for accrediting FSC national initiatives and independent certification bodies, both for chain of custody and forest management certification. Depending on the extent of their accreditation, FSC-accredited certification bodies may operate internationally and may carry out evaluations in a wide range of forest types. Where no FSC national standard exists, certification bodies will certify against locally adapted “generic standards” that they have developed in line with the FSC Principles and Criteria.

Demand for FSC-certified wood products has been limited in the UK construction sector, but this is changing. The UK government’s procurement policy which demands that wood is at minimum from legal sources and preferably from sustainable sources, is helping to generate new demand. FSC is recognised by the UK government as delivering “legal and sustainable” timber. FSC-certified products also achieve the highest rating for responsible sourcing under BREEAM.

Manufacturers and distributors of wood and paper products must have chain of custody certification in order to label and sell FSC-certified products

Increasing supply is also improving prospects for FSC-certified products in the construction sector. The UK’s state forests are 100% certified to FSC, so too are many large state and industrial forest lands in other parts of Europe and in Canada. In recent months, the area of FSC-certified forest has been rising rapidly in Russia. As a result, a large proportion of the softwood, MDF and chipboard supplied to the UK may now be obtained FSC certified with little or no need to pay a premium. The situation is more mixed with respect to hardwood. European hardwoods are becoming more readily available FSC certified, but there are significant constraints on supply of FSC-

certified tropical and American hardwoods.

FSC has been developing new procedures to ease the costs and burdens of chain of custody certification and improve supply. Multi-site chain of custody certification is now available for single companies operating from several sites. Only a sample of sites is inspected, thereby reducing costs for the company.

Group chain of custody certification is available for small businesses. This allows several small businesses to apply for one certificate. Rather than assess each individual business, certifiers audit a random sample of members of the group. The British Woodworking Federation has just established a group scheme for woodworkers and joiners.

Recently FSC has developed a chain of custody standard for project certification which can be used for virtually any type of new build or refurbishment, civil engineering project, or event such as an exhibition or festival (Timber Building Spring 2007). This is designed to cope with the realities of construction projects involving many subcontractors. It is often extremely difficult to ensure that all sub-contractors, especially smaller companies, are chain of custody certified. Project certification enables fully verified one-off claims to be made about the volume of FSC wood used in a particular project by the contractor or the client.