In October 1993 an agreement was reached to launch FSC, and by August 1994 a definitive set of Principles and Criteria, together with the Statutes for the Council were agreed and approved by the votes of the Founding Members. FSC is funded by charitable foundations, government donors, membership subscriptions and accreditation fees. To ensure its independence it does not accept funding from industry. In the near future FSC expects to develop a system to obtain royalties for the use of its logo. Forest certification is the process of inspecting particular forests or woodland to see if they are being managed according to an agreed set of standards.
Chain of custody is the process by which the source of a timber product is verified.
In order for products originating from certified sources to be eligible to carry the FSC Trademark, the timber has to be tracked from the forest through all the steps of the production process until it reaches the end user. Only when this tracking has been independently verified, the product is eligible to carry the FSC logo. A growing number of products are already available, such as wooden kitchen utensils, doors, frames etc. As more forests are certified, the number of products will rapidly increase. FSC is the only organisation offering a credible worldwide timber certification scheme for all forest types and plantations, and as such has already received endorsement and active commitment from a wide range of respected NGOs, including WWF, Friends of the Earth, and Greenpeace.