Widespread adoption of best practice codes can significantly reduce the environmental impacts of forest management, and promote more sustainable use of forest resources.
The legal framework supporting best management codes for forest management has strengthened in recent decades, with a large number of laws and regulations introduced at national levels that directly or indirectly influence the forest practices of private landowners. Nationally initiated programmes that legally mandate the manner in which forest practices may be applied have increased both in number and intensity during the past two decades and local government laws and regulations have also grown significantly.
The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) supports the development of national and local standards that implement the international Principles and Criteria of Forest Stewardship at the local level. These standards are developed by national and regional working groups which work to achieve consensus amongst those involved in forest management and conservation in each part of the world. FSC has prepared guidelines to help working groups develop regional certification standards.