Business View Magazine | March 2021

42 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE MARCH 2021 governments around the world could not agree to save the forests from deforestation, which was already a problem back then. Elements from all sides – environmentalists, industry, unions, Indigenous peoples – came together on a voluntary basis to create this organization, which was very novel at that time, to certify forest products from responsible sourcing as a market base and a solution to address that issue. “That’s how FSC was born, and it was actually founded here in Canada; Toronto had the first international assembly of the organization. It then moved to Oaxaca in Mexico and now it’s based out of Bonn, Germany. After more than 25 years, we are now in 80 countries with 225 million hectares (600 million acres) of FSC- certified forests around the world. I’ve been with the FSC since 2012 as the head of the national office in Canada.” BVM: What are the biggest challenges for the Council and the industry today? Dufresne: “The biggest problem we have, interestingly enough, is still the issue with deforestation. We lose millions of hectares of forest every year, especially in the Amazon in South America, in the Congo Basin in Africa, Southeast Asia (Borneo and Indonesia), but also the north. There are issues with responsible forest management in North America, Eastern Europe, and Russia, in terms of maintaining sound forest practices to avoid the loss of biodiversity. And especially here in Canada with respect to the rights of the Indigenous peoples. Those are the major issues we’re facing more than ever nowadays.” BVM: What differentiates FSC as a membership organization? Dufresne: “We have members around the world from different horizons of society. The beauty of FSC, and what makes our governance unique in the forest certification world, is the fact that the big environmentalist organizations such as FSC-certified forest, Mistik Management FSC-certified forest, Windhorse Farm Copyright, Morten Bo Johannson FSC-certified forest, Regional Municipality of York