In line with its overall decentralization approach, Greenpeace will allow national offices to de-termine if and how to best engage with FSC and forest management more broadly. In some countries – Canada, the United States and New Zealand for example – Greenpeace will re-main members of FSC International.
FSC believes this decision moves individual organizations inside Greenpeace Internationala-way from working on the responsible management of natural forests, even when certified to the world’s most trusted standard. In FSC’s view, forest protection cannot stand alone without responsible management to help protect and maintain the world’s forests.
FSC forest certification is a necessary tool to enhance and ensure economic, social and envi-ronmental forest values, including the protection of important biodiversity areas such as High Conservation Value forests and FSC intends to continue playing a frontrunner role in this area.
FSC is appreciative of Greenpeace International for its many contributions to enhance and improve our positive impact on sustainable management of the world’s forests over the years. For example, we have jointly made significant progress to enhance the protection of Intact Forest Landscapes and have started a valuable discussion on wider landscape protection approaches.
Our Policy for Association, a unique mechanism to FSC which ensures that companies that are associated with us or wish to be carry out their business following strict ethical and envi-ronmental guidelines, was also created with contributions from Greenpeace International.
FSC remains Greenpeace International’s only choice for forest management certification, trusting our principles and criteria and governance model and we look forward to continuing to engage constructively with them going forward, a commitment they have confirmed.
The decision by Greenpeace International does not change the dynamics nor focus of FSC’s chamber balanced consensus approach, as numerous other international environmental or-ganizations continue to play a central role in shaping our policies.
It also does not affect the quality of our standards for responsible forest management. FSC will continue to work effectively to address the challenges faced by global responsible forest management and will do so with the highest of ethical and professional commitment. Compa-nies and consumers worldwide can continue to trust the FSC label as the best guarantee to responsibly sourced forest materials and a leader in forest certification.
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About FSC
The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is a global not-for-profit organization dedicated to pro-moting environmentally sound, socially beneficial and economically prosperous management of the world’s forests. FSC was created in 1993 to help consumers and businesses identify products from well-managed forests and sets standards by which forests are certified, offering credible verification to people who are buying wood and wood products. Currently almost 200 million hectares and more than 33.000 chain of custody certificates with 55.000 sitesworldwide are certified to FSC standards. For more information visit www.fsc.org
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