History

World's remaining Frontier Forests

Concern over Tropical DEFORESTATION

The United States Senator and Vice-Presidental candidate, Al Gore, addresses the 1992 Earth Summit audience.

In 1992, at the United Nations Earth Summit in Rio, consumers, environmentalists, labour unions, industry representatives and First Nations came together to encourage tougher government REGULATIONS for forests. When this was not achieved, they conceived of voluntary forest certification as a market-based mechanism for ensuring healthy forests and strong communities.

In 1993, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) was founded in Toronto, Canada as a market-based mechanism for ensuring that forests are managed in an environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial, and economically viable manner.

In 2011, there are 140 million ha of FSC certified forests, 20,000 suppliers of FSC certified products, and the market for FSC products is worth mre than $20 billion USD.