Forest Stewardship Council

Abstract

At a meeting in San Francisco in 1991 a group of timber traders and social and environmental non-governmental organisations (ENGOs) agreed to develop an independently audited global system for ‘good forest management’, which, it was decided, should be called the FSC. In March 1992 an interim Board was elected, with representation from both developed and developing countries and six working groups were created with a range of tasks including the drafting of principles of forest management.2 Discussions during this period regarding the scope and intent of the emerging institution were wide-ranging. Initially it was proposed that FSC should be created as a foundation, with no members and only a Board of trustees, but the working group was persuaded to adopt a more participatory structure, which it was argued, would provide the FSC with greater legitimacy.