Croatia, highest share of FSC-certified forests in world

"Croatia has the highest share of FSC-certified forest area in the world . . . ensuring and demonstrating responsible forest management, according to the 10 FSC principles."

Summary of FSC Principles

1. Compliance with laws: comply with all applicable laws, regulations and nationally-ratified international treaties, conventions and agreements.

2. Workers' rights and employment conditions: maintain or enhance the social and economic well-being of workers.

3. Indigenous peoples’ rights: identify and uphold indigenous peoples’ legal and customary rights of ownership, use and management of land, territories and resources affected by management activities.

4. Community relations: contribute to maintaining or enhancing the social and economic well-being of local communities.

5. Benefits from the forest: maintain or enhance long term economic viability and the range of environmental and social benefits

6. Environmental values and impact: maintain, conserve and/or restore ecosystem services and environmental values

7. Management planning: have a management plan consistent with its policies and objectives and proportionate to scale, intensity and risks of its management activities.

8. Monitoring and assessment: The Organization shall monitor the implementation of its management plan, monitor and evaluate the environmental and social impacts of the activities carried out, make publicly available a summary of the results of monitoring free of charge

9. High conservation values: maintain and/or enhance the high conservation values (species diversity, landscape-level ecosystems and mosaics, ecosystems and habitats, critical ecosystem services, community needs, and cultural values)

10. Implementation of management activities: regenerate vegetation cover, use native species and local genotypes for regeneration, minimize or avoid the use of fertilizers, use integrated pest management and silviculture systems which avoid or aim at eliminating the use of chemical pesticides, and others.