Strategic Plan & Governance Structure

FSC International members are invited to the General Assembly. Delegates also include certification bodies, certificate holders, union representatives, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and observers – but only members can submit motions. 

FSC members discuss and vote on motions that may fundamentally affect the way FSC is run. 

To ensure that all voices are heard equally, each FSC chamber holds 33.3 per cent of the vote on all FSC matters. Within each chamber, votes are weighted to ensure that North and South each hold 50 per cent of the vote. 

The FSC General Assembly 2020 will be the 9th assembly of members in the history of the organization. The eighth FSC General Assembly 2017 took place in Vancouver, Canada, from 8 to 13 October 2017. The first general assembly took place in 1996 in Oaxaca, Mexico.

The Board of Directors are 12 individuals who are elected by, and accountable to, the members.

The FSC Board of Directors is accountable to all members. It consists of 12 elected representatives, with four elected from each of the chambers for a four-year term. 
 
In 2012, the Board of Directors unanimously agreed that Kim Carstensen would be the best person to lead the organization, bringing a wealth of knowledge and experience to the role. 

The mandate of the Policy and Standards Committee (PSC) is to streamline, facilitate and accelerate decision-making processes for the development of new and the revision of existing normative FSC documents.

The secure login area for the PSC can be found here.

Kim Carstensen is the Director General of the Forest Stewardship Council, a position he has held since October 2012. He was selected to succeed Andre de Freitas with the unanimous support of the FSC Board of Directors, who recognised that Mr. Carstensen’s proven track record as a global leader within the environment and development sectors make him extremely well-suited to consolidate FSC’s position as a global leader in responsible forest certification. 

Prior to joining FSC, Mr. Carstensen managed FairGreenSolutions, an environmental strategy and sustainable development consultancy that, among other things, helped link the concepts of ‘green economy’ and sustainable development for clients in the global South. 

His strategic approach to environment and development issues comes from a long history of global leadership at WWF, most recently as the leader of WWF International’s Global Climate Initiative, where he led the organisation’s development of nationally relevant and climate change programmes in the world’s key economies and its push for global climate action across governments and businesses. 

Prior to this he was the CEO of WWF Denmark, where he worked on issues related to global environment and development policy, and to environment and development projects in the global South. 

Mr. Carstensen’s broad development experience also comes from his prior role as Deputy Chairman of the Board of Danida (Denmark’s Official Development Assistance Agency), where he participated in broad discussions of development issues in all sectors, and from his academic training as a sociologist.