Forest Certification: From the Perspectives of FSC Certified Land Managers in North America

Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification emerged nearly a decade ago from the realms of environmental non-governmental organizations, which sought greater environmental and social accountability from the forestry sector. Since its birth, FSC forest certification has had significant impacts on land managers who have adopted FSC forest management certification for their organizations. Given limited information on impacts of certification, and in order to better understand and assess the implications of FSC forest certification on land managers and on land management; I employ a mail survey, sent to all FSC certified land managers in North America. The results of this survey are presented and focus on forest managers’ goals for seeking certification and benefits of certification, land management impacts of certification realized largely through changes in land management, and overall benefits and costs of certification. Results indicate FSC certification seems to be representing the interests of those calling for greater forest management accountability, but representing less well, the interests of FSC certified forest managers.