Our motto: Mind over matter: cultivating stakeholder commitment to Sustainable practices.

About this service

Experience tells us that Sustainable Resource Management is only achievable with stakeholders who feel knowledgeable and committed. To put it differently, stakeholders will only comply with sustainable practices if they understand and agree with the rationale behind. Ignoring this has been a recipe for project failure around the world. For many years, FSG has applied this principle in preparing stakeholders for Sustainable Resource Management.

For who?

Targeted stakeholders are found throughout commodity chains. These include landowners, managers, harvesters, policy-maker, traders and many more. A particular focus group consists of trainers; people committed to training others in specific fields of interest. Trainers may work for governments, companies, NGO's, Business Support Organizations or be members of local communities. See also our "clients" chapter.

Our approach

FSG's multi-stakeholder approach:
Our multi-stakeholder approach aims at achieving maximum stakeholder commitment to Sustainable Resource Management. This works in a double way. On the one hand, we tailor our training methods to the abilities and needs of specific stakeholders rather than vice versa. On the other hand, we consult key stakeholders before deciding on training content.

Our services

FSG divides this service into three components:

• Target Group Training;
• Training of Trainers and
• Multi-Stakeholder Consultation.

Target group Training

FSG offers highly specific training packages to different stakeholder groups. These include the following:

Land & forest owners and administrators

This includes awareness raising about the importance of sustainable practices. Also the business case for certification is made. In addition, training in financial administration is offered.

Contractors and harvesters

This includes technical capacity building, for compliance with Forest Management Plans , regulations and certification standards. Topics include low-impact logging; road planning; tree selection; forest inventory and others.

Resource administrators

This group includes national, regional and local authorities governing natural resources. FSG educates officials in the need for promoting sustainable practices and certification.

Business managers

Businesses, large and small, receive training about business opportunities in relation with sustainability. Topics include Clean Development Mechanisms and Corporate Social Responsibility. Additional training relates to management capacities and Export Promotion and Marketing .

Local community leaders

Local community members are trained in leading activities such as Group Certification. Trained capacities include documentation, communication and (financial) administration.

Certification Auditors

FSG trains new auditors from developing countries, so as to make certification more accessible to producers.

NGO staff

NGO staff receive training about project management . Awareness raising activities focus on the importance of sustainable practices and certification.

Local Tourist Guides

Local community members are trained in managing groups of national and international tourists. They are also trained in recognizing species and describing ecology and landscape features. Included are communication and presentation skills.

Training of Trainers

Activities in this category focus on trainers engaged with the stakeholder groups that receive our Target Group Training. Included are trainers in Natural Resource Management practices, local community promoters, business trainers and training staff of Business Support Organizations and NGO's.

Multi-Stakeholder Consultation

We organize and facilitate multi-stakeholder consultations, for both analysis and design purposes:

Joint analysis

These sessions with multiple stakeholders are to result in a representative and realistic description of a project context. Thus, they serve to inform adequate project decisions.

Joint design

Joint design sessions are organized for achieving concrete results that depend on multiple perspectives. An example is the development of standards used in certification processes.