The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) promotes environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial, and economically viable management of the world’s forests. Environmentally appropriate forest management ensures that the harvest of timber products maintains the forest’s biodiversity, productivity and ecological processes.

Forest management certification involves frequent inspections of the forest management unit by an independent FSC-accredited certification body to check that the forest complies with the internationally-agreed FSC Principles of Responsible Forest Management. If the forest complies with FSC standards, then the FSC accredited certification body issues a certificate for the operation. Certified forest operations can claim the forest products they produce come from a responsibly managed forest.