The Forest Stewardship Council is celebrating its 20th anniversary this month and has commended the print industry for its support.

A spokeswoman heaped praise on print for embracing the certification but warned more was needed to increase its uptake.

After two decades, more than 180m ha of forests are FSC-certified, including more than half of the forest area in the UK.

Around 300m cubic meters of FSC-certified wood are harvested every year, 17% of the global industrial roundwood market, and 8% of the global fuelwood and industrial roundwood market.

“There still still a long way to go in terms of protecting the world’s forests, but this is fantastic, especially for the UK, location of Europe’s first national office,” the spokeswoman said.

“We had a big explosion of activity across the print sector about four years ago, which at the time was our largest growth area.

“To sustain this printers need to keep telling the environmental story to make sure their clients are aware of the FSC and why it is so important.”

FSC certification helped to maintain appropriate habitats and push companies toward social progress. Tropical producers meanwhile could garner economic benefits from FSC certification. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is an international not for-profit, multi-stakeholder organization established in 1993 to promote responsible management of the world’s forests.