Background
The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is an international non-profit organization that offers forest certification. It was founded in 1993 by representatives from environmental groups, the timber industry, the forestry profession, indigenous peoples' organizations, community forestry groups and forest product certification organizations from 25 countries. The FSC is an organization with nearly 600 members from more than 70 countries. Membership is open to organizations and individuals representing social, economic and environmental interests.
Governance
The organization is controlled by an elected Board, which consists of representatives from industry, conservation groups, indigenous peoples groups and others. The membership elects the FSC Board of Directors - nine individuals representing a balance of social, environmental and economic interests. Additionally, these groups are split along geographical lines with representation from both developing and industrialized countries.
Standards
The FSC has developed a set of global Principles and Criteria for forest management. There are 10 Principles and 57 Criteria that address legal aspects, indigenous rights, labor rights, multiple benefits and environmental impacts surrounding forest management. Although the Principles and Criteria are applicable to all forest ecological types throughout the world, FSC encourages national working groups to adapt these Principles and Criteria to local ecological, economic and social conditions to create regional or national standards.
In addition to standards development, the national groups are also responsible for providing public information, offering a national dispute resolution mechanism, and monitoring certification organizations to ensure compliance with FSC requirements. The U.S. working group was established in 1995, while the Canadian group was created in 1996. The standards are developed by a collection of economic, social and environmental interests.
There are nine approved regional standards in the U.S. and three in Canada. Additionally, the FSC has specialized requirements for small forestland owners. The initiative is called Small and Low Intensity Managed Forests at the international level, but is known as the Family Forests Program in the U.S. Globally it applies to operations less than 100 hectares, but in the U.S. it applies to forests less than 1,000 hectares or 2,470 hectares.
Accreditation
The FSC developed procedures and standards for accrediting certification bodies qualified to certify forest operations. An internal FSC body conducts an office audit and interviews the organizations that have already been audited by an application certification entity. The FSC accredited certification bodies can operate internationally and evaluate any forest type. Accredited certification organizations are regularly monitored and required to be re-accredited every five years.
Certification
The FSC certification process involves a pre-interview between the auditor and forest manager, a review of documentation and a field assessment to determine conformance to the FSC standard. Certified entities are subject to annual field audits and must undergo a full evaluation to renew their certificates every five years. Further, certified operations are monitored on an annual basis to ensure they continue to comply with the Principles and Criteria.
Product Tracking and Labeling
The FSC has a chain of custody (COC) tracking and labeling system for marking forest products that meets its forest management standards. The system allows for three different product tracking approaches:
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A physical separation model that separately stores and uses certified material. |
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A batch model that uses only certified materials on a temporal basis—e.g. production shift. |
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A mixed model that addresses the simultaneous use of certified and non-certified materials.
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The FSC has three product labels and provisions to eliminate controversial uncertified sources from the supply chain. The FSC defines controversial sources as raw material derived from illegal harvests, ecologically significant forests, genetically modified trees and forests where social conflict exists. The FSC labels are:
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A FSC pure label for products made with 100 percent certified material; |
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A FSC mixed label for products where the manufacturing processes contains a minimum of 10 percent certified material and recycled wood and fiber and/or uncertified raw material that is not from controversial sources; and |
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A FSC recycled label for products manufactured with 100 percent recycled content. |
FSC on the Ground
To learn more about the number forest management and chain of custody certificates for the FSC, go to the Forest Certification Comparison Matrix page.
Head Office:
Forest Stewardship Council
FSC International Center GmbH
Charles de Gaulle Str 5 53113 Bonn Germany
Tel: +49 (228) 367 66 0
Fax: +49 (228) 367 66 30
Web site: http://www.fsc.org/
United States Office:
Forest Stewardship Council United States
1155 30th Street NW Suite 300
Washington D.C. 20007
USA
Tel: 1 202 342 0413 or 1 877-372-5646
Fax: 1 202 342 6589
Web site: www.fscus.org
Canadian Office:
Forest Stewardship Council of Canada
1 Eva Road, Suite 205
Toronto, ON M9C 4Z5
Canada
Tel: 1 416 778 5568 or 1-877-571-1133
Fax: 1 416 778 0044
Web site: http://www.fsccanada.org
