Membership chambers
FSC is a membership association open to a wide range of organizations and individuals representing social, economic and environmental interests. FSC's membership consists of three chambers: Social, Environmental and Economic, which is further split into sub-chambers North and South. All members should demonstrate an active commitment to FSC and its Principles and Criteria.
The Social Chamber includes non-profit, non-governmental organizations, indigenous peoples associations, unions as well as research, academic, technical institutions and individuals that have a demonstrated commitment to socially beneficial forestry. This means that they support forest management and believe in delivering forest products to the market in a way that does not infringe on the rights of other stakeholders.
The Environmental Chamber includes non-profit, non-governmental organizations, as well as research, academic, technical institutions and individuals that have an active interest in environmentally viable forest stewardship.
The Economic Chamber includes organizations and individuals with a commercial interest. Examples are employees, certification bodies, industry and trade associations (whether profit or non-profit), wholesalers, retailers, traders, consumer associations, and consulting companies. Applicants with economic interests must have demonstrated active commitment to implementing FSC Principles and Criteria in their operations.
Learn about the benefits of becoming an FSC member as well as how to apply for membership
-
Why have a chamber system?
-
In order to balance the interests of different stakeholders, FSC is governed by three chambers with equal vote and power that make decisions cooperatively. The three chambers represent environmental, economic and social interests. Each of these chambers in turn is divided into sub-chamber north and south. This guarantees equal weight of vote and influence for the different interest groups as well as for representatives from different parts of the world and economic power.
Graph illustrating FSC weighting of organizational and individual votesCategory: Governance, Membership general -
What do Southern/Northern sub-chambers indicate?
-
Each chamber has two sub-chambers: Southern and Northern. We will place you in the Southern sub-chamber if your organization is legally registered in a non high-income country and the Northern sub-chamber if your organization is legally registered in a high-income country.
As an individual member, you join the sub-chamber of the country in which you hold citizenship. We follow the World Bank definition in our classification of southern and northern countries.Category: Membership application, Governance
