FSC® – Forest Stewardship Council
The FSC® was founded in 1993 as a non-governmental, non-profit organization governed by members from around the world.
The organization’s purpose and goal is to promote responsible forest management by means of a credible certification system and the FSC® label.
FSC® certification is widely recognized as a prestigious label and an award for responsible forest management. This is the main reason why the FSC® has become the most successful forest certification system in the world as concerns brand recognition and market visibility.
The FSC® has created 10 globally applied principles and 56 criteria for forest management.
These are used by the individual FSC® national branches, that then work with experts to develop national FSC® standards. In countries where a national FSC® standard has not yet been developed or approved, certification companies use general standards based on the international FSC® standard when issuing the certification. A Czech FSC® Standard has already been developed in the Czech Republic, and the FSC® uses it when certifying.
PEFC® – Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (sustainable forestry management criteria)
PEFC® certification allows you to use PEFC-certified resources that are available on the market and meet the requirements for certified products.
PEFC® International is the only international forest certification scheme that bases its criteria on internationally recognized intergovernmental conventions and guidelines, by which it links sustainability criteria to existing government procedures.
The PEFC® system has been rated several times as the largest forest certification system in the world. It is usually suitable for small and medium-sized companies.
Both the FSC® and PEFC® systems are easy to implement into ISO standards (
9 001,
14 001 etc.) that have already been set up.
