Alternative Forestry Certifications Challenge the FSC

The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) was created in the early 1990s to establish worldwide, environmentally sound standards for forest management practices and to monitor the agencies that choose to certify forestry programs to those standards (see EBN

Vol. 6, No. 10). Although some forest industry groups participated in the FSC’s creation and continue to support it, others find its environmental standards and documentation requirements overly burdensome and have sought to establish alternative programs. As certified wood products are increasingly being recognized and demanded in the marketplace, these alternatives are becoming more and more sophisticated and substantial. “It’s not an FSC-only type of show anymore,” notes Jean-Pierre Kiekens, editor of the international newsletter