Dialogue on Forest Certification in Switzerland

In 2002, TFD convened its first meeting on forest certification in Geneva. This dialogue brought together, for the first time, the CEOs and lead supporters of the 5 “mature” certification systems (FSC, PEFC, CSA, SFI & ATFS). That dialogue produced a consensus among major certification system executives and many of their key system proponents that multiple forest certification systems will continue to exist. The dialogue also focused on the concept of “legitimacy”, or how different stakeholders perceived the credibility of “their” particular system compared to others. The meeting launched a process for more frequent contacts between system leaders. And, it catalyzed the development of the Legitimacy Thresholds Model (LTM) concept by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), aimed at establishing an independent assessment framework based on transparent criteria for different thresholds of legitimacy and objective evaluation methodologies.