Jun 15, 2011. /Lesprom Network/. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) announced the appointment of Patrick Little as Chief Operations Officer (COO) at the FSC International Center in Bonn, Germany. In this newly-created role, Patrick will be responsible for coordinating the development of technical and administration operations at the FSC International Center which supports the activities of a Global Network in more than 50 countries throughout the world. “The creation of this position is just one example of our strategic response to FSC’s phenomenal success over the past years. We are moving our operations and quality of service to a new level of excellence so that we can continue to meet the tremendous challenges that come with growth and expansion”, commented Andre de Freitas, Director General of FSC. “I am delighted to be joining the FSC Team”, said Patrick, who joined the Forest Stewardship Council on June 1st. “FSC has been a great success story since its inception 20 years ago, with the volume of products and services bearing the FSC Trustmark sold in 2010 exceeding $20 billion. When we consider that merely 10% of the world’s productive forests are currently FSC certified, it is obvious that there is still much work ahead to promote forest management that brings environmental, social and economic benefits. We have here an opportunity, rare in today’s world of business, to refocus and improve our operations while we are so successful”. FSC is the fastest growing forest certification scheme worldwide with more than 140 million hectares in over 80 countries. In 2011, FSC chain of custody certification surpassed 20,000 certificates, driven by strong market demand for responsible forest products.