Forest Certification

One of the best ways of making sure the wood in your coffee table didn't come from a rainforest tree is by making sure that the lumber used was FSC certified. FSC means the Forest Stewardship Council, a non-profit organization that is dedicated to certifying that lumber was either legally cut or came from a plantation. FSC was Established in 1993 as a response to concerns over global deforestation. In order for Amazonia Reforestation to sell its plantation lumber into the USA and Canada, it needs to have its tropical trees FSC certified. This is a process with which most responsible wood lots and plantations are happy to comply.

FSC has certified some 115 million hectares (1.150,000 square kilometers or 444,020 square miles) of  wood lots and forests to date. Since the organization consists of members from environmental groups, the timber industry, aboriginal groups and other stakeholders, it has broad-based appeal. It works with small forest holders and large forestry management companies alike. Certification doesn't just end at the plantation. FSC provides chain of custody certification as well, so that only certified lumber is shipped to and received by the end user.

An FSC certificate tells the public and the end user that the wood producer complied with the highest environmental and social standards on the market when they produced the trees. This makes FSC certification a very credible approach to complex environmental and social issues affecting our planet. More and more timber resellers, governments and instituions are now demanding FSC certification when they are procuring lumber from sensitive sources around the world.