People have become more and more interested in the environment ever since the first the 1960’s and 1970’s that included the first global meetings about environmental issues and the first Earth Day. With the increased awareness of the environment came the recognition that degradation is occurring in ecosystems all over the world and natural resources are becoming limited. One of the greatest natural resources that are in danger is forests, not just the wood products but also the medical uses of plants that are found in forests and other resources found in the forest. Many organizations became interesting in preserving the natural resources that we depend on to live the lives that we have become accustom to.

One such organization was the Rainforest Alliance, which is an organization that works to protect ecosystems and the people and wildlife that depend on such ecosystems. The Rainforest Alliance took a particular interest in forests as one of the natural resources that need protection and formed the SmartWood organization that was established in 1989. This non-profit organization initiated the idea of certifying forests and forest products and has become the worlds leading forestry certifier. These ideas and concepts were adopted across the world and SmartWood works with all different types of forests including tropical, temperate, and boreal.

In 1990 a group of timber users, traders, and representatives of environmental and human-rights organizations met in California to discuss how to develop a system to identify well-managed forests and acceptable sources of forest products. At the meeting they decided that there should be a global agreement on what good forest management is and have an overall organization to audit such management and created the name Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). In 1993 FSC was established with the help of SmartWood. The Rainforest Alliance and SmartWood were among the first to be accredited by FSC.

While this was occurring in California with a more global focus, Minnesota was concerned about the management of their forests. In 1989 Minnesota commissioned a Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS) to assess the growing impacts of timber harvesting. Some of the main concerns that were considered ranged from economic impacts to biodiversity and aesthetics. While this assessment didn’t answer all the questions about forest management it did clarify the issues, identified gaps in information, and help bring awareness and groups together to set course for forest management in the future.

Since then, public awareness has increased and the consumer demands are causing industries to change their practices. In addition, the governments of many countries are feeling pressure to create more social and environmental benefits from well-managed forestry. There has been an increase in the number of certification organizations, but this project will tend to focus on FSC because it is the largest in the world and is linked to the SmartWood regional office located here in Northfield, Minnesota.