Setting the Standard: Certification, Governance, and the Forest Stewardship Council

Setting the Standard chronicles the emergence and implications of an ambitious experiment in civil-society-led global the Forest Stewardship Council. The FSC was born in 1993 as a grassroots initiative to promote "environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial, and economically viable management of the world's forests" through an international system of forest certification.

The recent establishment of an FSC standard for British Columbia was achieved only after difficult and protracted negotiations at the regional, national, and global levels. Drawing on a pioneering case study of this negotiation process, Setting the Standard explores the challenges associated with implementing the FSC's global vision on the ground. It also undertakes a detailed comparative analysis of FSC standards and standard-setting processes elsewhere in Canada and in the United States and Europe, and grapples with the broader implications of the emerging FSC experience for global governance and regulatory theory.