Forest
Stewardship Council (FSC) is a non-profit organization established to promote
and set standards to make sure that forestry is practiced in an environmentally
responsible and socially beneficial manner. The FSC certification is used to
certify that the plantation is forest management, and the timber-based products
are harvested from forest management. Furthermore, FSC is accredited on the
international level. FSC uses the power of the marketplace to persuade
entrepreneurs to improve forest management to build a sustainable environment
that balances the 3 sectors, including the economy, community, and environment.
The
Forest Stewardship Council's objective is to recover conserved forests and
reduce deforestation. FSC was established in October 1993 and set the standards
in August 1994. The Headquarter located in Bonn, Germany. There are two types
of FSC certification: Forest Management Certification (FSC-FM) and
Chain-of-Custody Certification (FSC-COC). The Forest Management Certification
(FSC-FM) aims to promote environmentally sound, socially beneficial and
economically prosperous management of the world's forests. It is divided into
10 following principles. 1) Compliance with laws and FSC principles, 2) Tenure
and use rights and responsibilities, 3) Indigenous people's rights, 4)
Community relations and worker's rights, 5) Benefits from the forest, 6)
Environmental impact, 7) Forest management plan, 8) Monitoring and assessment,
9) Maintenance of high conservation value forests, and 10) Plantations. For the
Chain-of-Custody Certification, it helps to promote the products that come from
responsibly managed forests providing environmental, social and economic
benefits. Furthermore, it adds product values as well as promotes corporate
social responsibility (CSR) of the entrepreneurs.
Currently,
Thailand's rubber industry from upstream to downstream sector attaches great
importance to the FSC certification. Some companies already verified by FSC
certification. This pushes forward the natural rubber industry together with
gloves rubber industry of Thailand into the international level.
From
the above data, it could be concluded that FSC sustainable forest management
standards play an important role in promoting the environment, society, and
economy. The time has come for all of us to study and implement the principle
in business operation to promote sustainability in rubber industry.