FSC Germany perspective
Contribution by Uwe Sayer, Director of FSC-Germany The members took a big step towards a new era of our network.
Historical decisions have been made to restructure the organisation towards an empowered network.
The members recognized National Initiatives (NIs) as key elements for FSC's development. Within a new structure, an NI representative will be obsever in the Board of Directors, which links activities and issues from the ground directly to strategic decisions. Technical issues will be reduced in the Board and replaced by a focus on strategic issues and real leadership.
As a consequence of consolidating NIs the promotion and administration of membership will be transferred to the national level. Details for this model are not developed yet, but the decision prepares the ground for a broad basis of members and supporters worldwide. NIs will be even more encouraged to bring stakeholders into the system and into working with responsible forest management.
As a result of these changes, the membership supports a motion which creates financial incentives for NIs to make the system grow. The members made sure that there is a powerful headquarter maintaining the integrity of the system and they support the allocation of resources for strategic priorities. The members also agreed on a mechanism that will connect the work of NIs on their promotion of FSC certification with direct revenue. No details for this mechanism have been developed so far, but the general concept prepares the ground for a sustainable and proactive growth of the system.
