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<\/a><\/p>\nIn 1990 a diverse group of individuals and organizations concerned about sustainable forest management met in California\u00a0and highlighted the need for a system that could credibly identify well-managed forests as the sources of responsibly produced wood products. The concept of FSC and the name were coined at this meeting<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n It was another two years before the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development \u2013 the Earth Summit \u2013 was held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. <\/strong><\/p>\n The Earth Summit produced no legally binding commitments on forest management, but it did result in Agenda 21 and the non-legally binding Forest Principles. And crucially it provided a forum for many non-governmental organizations to come together and gather support for the innovative idea of a non-governmental, independent and international forest certification scheme.<\/p>\n Following intensive consultations in ten countries to build support for the idea of a worldwide certification system, the FSC Founding Assembly was held in Toronto, Canada in 1993.<\/strong><\/p>\n The FSC Secretariat opened in Oaxaca, Mexico and the FSC was established as a legal entity in Mexico in February 1994.<\/p>\n The FSC Secretariat relocated to Bonn, Germany in 2003.<\/p>\n Since its inception, FSC has gone from strength to strength. The number of forest management and chain of custody certificates have increased exponentially, passing a total of 20,000 certificates in 2011; the 1,000th forest management certificate was also issued in 2011 to a Portuguese small farmers\u2019 association covering their cork plantations. Our 6th General Assembly was held in 2011 in Sabah, Malaysia, and was attended by about 400 participants.<\/p>\n