Shopping for eco-friendly, sustainable wood furniture? You may well be aware that the gold seal of approval for it is Forest Stewardship Council certification. The FSC is thought by many to function as world's most independent and trustworthy certifier of forest products, including wood furniture. FSC 's been around for almost 20 years and they have been enormously important in promulgating standards for the responsible harvest of wood (used in furniture, flooring and paper), particularly from the world's rapidly disappearing rainforests.

Recently, however the FSC has been under fire from conservation groups like Rainforest Relief and Ecological Internet for alleged lax performance and for certification of the logging of ancient, old-growth, primary rainforests. They criticize FSC for certifying the FSC Notes harvest of ancient trees (often 500 years of age or more) in Brazil's Amazon forest and in other ecologically sensitive rainforests habitats around the world. In what could be an impending domino effect, this year the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation resigned from FSC after making several formal complaints that FSC failed to deal with, regarding FSC-certified logging of Swedish old-growth forests.

Eco-conscious FSC Notes clients are starting to question the integrity of FSC certification of eco-friendly wood furniture and other forest products. More and more consumers who are concerned about where their wood furniture originates from are wondering if FSC certification is enough. The concern has evolved in to a movement towards buying eco-friendly American made furniture that's constructed with sustainably harvested wood from well managed forest lands in the USA.

Supporters of the sustainable American-made furniture movement prefer the utilization of American wood (whether it's FSC certifed or not) over the utilization of imported FSC certified wood. They observe that in 2008 the quantity of American hardwoods was 90 percent bigger than it absolutely was 50 years back alongside the truth that nearly doubly much hardwood grows in USA forest lands than is harvested every year. These statistics make a statement in regards to the sustainability of wood furniture that originates in American forests that goes far beyond the criteria FSC has organized for FSC certified wood furniture.