More than 100 million hectares certified to FSC standards

Thu 10 Apr 2008

In March 2008, the area of forest certified to FSC standards exceeded 100 million hectares.  Currently 103,456,399 hectares of forest are FSC certified, distributed over 79 countries.

Globally, FSC certified forests represent the equivalent of 7% of production forests.  The latest UN FAO report confirms FSC to be the fastest growing forest certification scheme in the world.  In 2006 FSC certified acreage grew by 20 million hectares, roughly 33%.

"FSC is about providing the highest social and environmental quality assurance in forest management - not about hectares certified.  And yet we have reached the 100 million hectare mark earlier than anticipated.  This shows a strong market interest in FSC and we are proud about this achievement." commented Andre de Freitas, FSC Head of Operations.

"The larger the forest area certified to FSC standards, the larger the forest area that is managed socially and environmentally responsibly.  Each additional hectare certified to FSC standards brings us closer to achieving our mission: to improve forest management worldwide."

With the accelerated growth and associated expansion of FSC in new geographical areas over the past years, FSC is focusing particular attention on adapting and reinforcing its systems to new challenges in order to maintain and strengthen its credibility.