National Initiatives financing 6 November 2008
Yesterday Alan Knight, founder of Single Planet Living, asked whether the NIs should be in front of the cameras driving the market, or rather in the engine room lobbying politically for the FSC cause.
That is a strategic question which has to be answered by the National Initiatives themselves. Whichever pathway they choose, it is clear that the NIs do have an important role to play in promoting FSC in particular at local level. At the same time, the basic functions of FSC National Initiatives, such as facilitating the development of FSC standards, need to be secured.
The resources base of National Initiatives should ideally be in place to secure an economic platform for them to develop and maintain their technical expertise as well as taking a leading role in FSC awareness raising activities. In NEPCon, we have experienced the problems that result from lack of forestry expertise in some local NIs, and the loss of skilled NI staff due to financial instability. We have also had the good fortune to experience the benefits of NI success.
Funds created success
The Danish FSC National Initiative is an example of how funds can help an NI achieve impressive results in a short period of time. Around 100,000 EUR were spent on strategic marketing activities during 2006-2007. Results were clear and remain visible even today: public recognition of the FSC brand in Denmark increased from 14% in 2005 to 33% in 2008.
The mayor of Denmark's second largest city is presented with an FSC-certified mayor's hammer, surrounded by children dressed as trees. © FSC-Denmark.
In that same period, the number of chain of custody certificates increased significantly from 2005 to 98 in 2008. Though the general market trends have supported this development, there is a clear correlation in time between the funded activities and the number of new members and Danish COC certificates.
Presently, there is no single solution to the financial challenges faced by NIs. Motions 56 and 57 presented for the General Assembly deal with the issues of defining clear roles and responsibilities for the National Initiatives, and developing a fair and transparent system for system revenue sharing that also creates financial stability for the NI network.
Comment by Peter K. Kristensen DLH, Economic chamber :
“NIs play a unique role in promoting the FSC brand among consumers, public buyers and the industry. The strength of the NIs is that if they have the necessary resources, they can create tailor-made marketing adapted to the local market, and they can help us open doors to new business and to important decision makers. Through our membership of FSC Denmark’s business forum we have participated in a number of marketing campaigns with the aim of promoting FSC wood on the Danish market, resulting in increasing demand and new business”.
Comment by Jacob Futtrup, Nepenthes, Environmental chamber:
"Responsible management of the world's forests is essential to solving social and environmental issues and is the overall goal for our organisation.
We see strong NIs as an important asset in doing so and are therefore
members of FSC Denmark. The increased awareness towards FSC in Denmark as a result of the increased number of activities has put us closer to our goal".
