Saturday, 01 February 2003
FSC-U.S. Board Members Profile
This is the third in a series of FSC-U.S. articles featuring FSC U.S. board members. The board is composed of nine elected members, three each from the economic, social, and environmental chamber.
Cecilia Danks is Assistant Professor, Environmental Policy at the University of Vermont and on the board of the Watershed Research and Training Center. She is a member of the FSC social chamber.
Daniel Hall is Director of the Forest Biodiversity Program of the American Lands Alliance, and a member of the FSC environmental chamber.
Jamey French is President of Northland Forest Products, and a member of the FSC economic chamber.
How do the goals of the FSC fit in with the goals of your organization?
CD: The Watershed Research and Training Center is a non-profit organization that seeks to foster healthy forests and healthy communities through research, education, community development and training. We felt that FSC’s market-oriented approach to promoting responsible forestry that pays attention to social issues could be a valuable tool to help achieve social, economic and environmental health in forest regions.
DH: American Lands works to protect and restore America’s wildlife and wild places, particularly on our federal public lands. Because the regulatory system for most non-federal forestlands is highly inadequate, we also promote market incentives for landowners to improve their forest management and, where management is already sound, to maintain those practices. In the US, FSC-based certification is by far and away the most significant and credible incentive system for improving commercial forestry practices on non-federal lands.
JF: Northland Forest Products has been committed to FSC from its early days. We are interested in the long term sustainability of our industry—quality trees, quality people and protected landscape. FSC goals fit well with our corporate principles.
Why did you accept the nomination to the board, and what are the most important things you hope to achieve while on the board?
CD: I was interested in serving on the Board as a way to help connect the western US community forestry movement more closely with FSC, and to contribute to the success of this growing and evolving organization. The things I would like to achieve in my term include strengthening how FSC-US addresses social issues embodied in the Principles and Criteria, through work on standards and outreach to its social constituency and highlighting the special needs and contributions of small forest landowners, an issue that spans East and West.
DH: I was pleased to be nominated to the FSC-US Board, because FSC-based certification can play an important role in restoring forest ecosystems on non-federal forestlands in the US, and because American Lands can help provide an important link between the FSC and the grassroots forest conservationists who understand local forest conservation needs. Among my objectives as a board member are securing sound regional standards across the US; the certification of public lands is handled properly; and that the grassroots perspective is included in the FSC’s stakeholder processes.
JF: I have always believed that you have to get involved to make a difference. As a 16 year old in 1970 I was town chairman of the first Earth Day. As for my objective as a board member, I have tried to bring the pragmatic business approach to FSC governance and policy. I hope I have made some impact.
How did you first become involved with FSC?
CD: The Watershed Research and Training Center was first involved in FSC as a participant in the Pacific Coast Regional Working Group in the mid-1990s. After a colleague who was our FSC representative moved onto a new job, I became the WRTC’s official rep and quickly became involved in the standards process as well.
DH: I first became involved with the FSC while working for the Pacific Forest Trust. The Trust was chosen to coordinate the FSC’s Pacific Coast regional standards. I was the lead staffperson on the project.
JF: In the early days of FSC, Michael Jenkins, Catherine Mater and others invited me to a meeting at Tall Timbers in Florida to discuss ways to engage the business community in the FSC movement. Northland then received its Chain-of–Custody certification in late 1996 (Smartwood 022), and we have stuck to it ever since—through thick and thin.