The global environmental awareness has become the most important driver for sustainable development also in the forestry sector, which has reproduced interest in Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) and Certified Forest Products (CFPs). However, the initial objectives set for the forest certification have not been met on a large-scale and markets for CFPs have developed unequally in different countries, as will become apparent in this review. As the underlying assumption behind the forest certification is that consumers are concerned about the state of forests and that such attitudes are reflected in their purchase decisions, it is reasonable to concentrate on consumer behaviour when examining the market creation for CFPs. The review shows that even though more elaborate consumer research methods have been applied recently, many of the empirical results are from the 1990s and up-to-date comprehensive results do not exist. Furthermore, the existing literate on consumer research on CFPs offer widely conflicting results. This review tries to build understanding on the fundaments in the market creation for CFPs and to include some new dimensions to existing consumer surveys from other disciplines in order to find missing factors determining consumer behaviour and purchase of CFPs. Based on this review, some of the factors that could be better incorporated in the consumer research on CFPs include 1) competitive product characteristics from consumer perspective, 2) consumer awareness over the forest certification and sustainable forest management, and 3) consumer perceptions on the different institutions and actors involved in forest certification including supplier characteristics. In order to make more realistic comparisons between the different market areas also 4) country-wise economic and social indicators and 5) cultural factors could be better incorporated in the future research on consumer preferences and dissemination of forest certification. Further knowledge about the consumers’ preferences and perceptions on CFPs in Scandinavian markets and on forest certification in general could be utilised to develop the attributes of certified products and services of forest certification associations. Furthermore, an in-depth knowledge about the nature of consumer preferences could be used in marketing CFPs.