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

Setting the Standard chronicles the emergence andimplications of an ambitious experiment in civil-society-led globalgovernance: the Forest Stewardship Council. The FSC was born in 1993 asa grassroots initiative to promote "environmentally appropriate,socially beneficial, and economically viable management of theworld's forests" through an international system of forestcertification. The recent establishment of an FSC standard for British Columbia wasachieved only after difficult and protracted negotiations at theregional, national, and global levels. Drawing on a pioneering casestudy of this negotiation process, Setting the Standardexplores the challenges associated with implementing the FSC'sglobal vision on the ground. It also undertakes a detailed comparativeanalysis of FSC standards and standard-setting processes elsewhere inCanada, the United States, and Europe, and grapples with the broaderimplications of the emerging FSC experience for global governance andregulatory theory.