The Forest Stewardship Council in Chile

Abstract

Climate change and forest fires are bringing global forest management back into the public eye. One of the most important players on a global level is the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), which certifies forest products. This article argues that market-based regulatory mechanisms such as the FSC have systematic weaknesses and, using the example of the Chilean forest industry, shows that this is particularly true for the regulation of global extractivist commodity chains. It argues that private regulatory mechanisms such as FSC perpetuate global dependencies, ecological problems, and social inequalities.