This is my twelfth year working for FSC. I still remember the day I “inherited” the one-person China office from the person who later became FSC’s Asia Pacific Regional Director. At that time, the FSC market was small and entangled in many uncertainties. People wondered if this “western idea” would survive China’s rigorous rules and administration, and whether the FSC model would fit with the overriding priority of many Chinese companies: Making a profit.
Today, I think that these uncertainties have mostly been resolved, as the number of FSC participants within China has grown steadily for 11 years. I also feel confident in saying that FSC is mainstreaming as a market instrument. Just think about this: For each and every kind of consumer product, one can easily name a brand that partners with FSC. Despite the Covid-related difficulties of the past two years, this number has increased in almost all FSC countries.
We have passed an important checkpoint and we are now looking ahead to the next one. This raises a new question: Can FSC achieve our aspirations to mainstream the value of forests?
I am cautiously optimistic about this. Compared to the last decade, our society has slowed down the rate of deforestation and increased forested areas through solid management plans. Meanwhile, we are becoming more conscious of the drivers of environmental problems and more capable of devising solutions. After all, it was our ancestors who “created” environmental problems when they invented agriculture! Our predecessors only realised the extent of the catastrophe after they sent satellites to space. And having experienced globalisation, our generation is able to see how things are connected on a global scale. Despite setbacks from time to time, it seems we are evolving in a positive direction.
However, to keep up with this evolution, FSC needs to quickly adapt to changes in the market. Today, 50,000 companies have FSC certification of one kind or another. These companies conduct tens of thousands of transactions every day; while our forest management certificates cover 230 million hectares of forests around the world. In general, FSC’s principles on traceability and land governance remain solid and strong, but they do need updating to reflect a digitalising world. Today’s technologies, blockchain for example, are extremely efficient and accurate and open up a new world for transaction verifiers and auditors. FSC’s members are seeing this, and this digital transition has been prioritised in the FSC Global Strategy. We are currently working hard with stakeholders on new innovations.
I see these advances as moving us in a positive direction and, over the long term, I feel they will bring us closer to creating forests for all, forever.
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