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What is FSC certification？
Posted Date:2017/7/26
1. FOREST MANAGEMENT CERTIFICATION
FSC forest management certification confirms that the forest is being managed in a way that preserves the natural ecosystem and benefits the lives of local people and workers, all while ensuring it sustains economically viablility.
To secure this certification, FSC members have agreed a set of criteria that forest managers or owners have to meet.
MAINTAINING AREAS OF ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL VALUE
Forest management certification helps protect the people and plant and animal species that live in and around, and depend upon, the forest. Forest areas are often home to communities of Indigenous People who live or work on the land, and for whom the forest is a source of essential food or materials and a contributor to their traditional cultural identity. To meet social criteria, certificate holders must respect Indigenous Peoples’ land rights and enhance forest workers’ rights.
We also require forest managers to protect areas of high conservation value (HCVs). These may contain significant concentration of plant or animal species; rare, threatened, or endangered ecosystems; or areas of rare or outstanding biological, ecological, or social value.
FOREST MANAGEMENT CERTIFICATION: THE PROCESS
Certification is achieved by passing an assessment carried out by an FSC-accredited certification body, with forest management conformity assessed against the FSC Principles and Criteria.
Following a brief initial pre-assessment, which aims to reveal any potential areas of non-conformity that could prevent certification, the evaluation process consists of an in-depth review of forest management processes and their environmental, social, and economic impact. A certificate will be issued, depending on the number and scale of any non-conformities discovered.
FSC forest management certification is valid for five years, subject to annual checks that FSC requirements are continuously met.
CERTIFYING A SMALL-MEDIUM FOREST AREA
FSC recognizes that forests are managed by individuals and groups of all shapes and sizes – such as smallholders, including Indigenous Peoples, and communities practicing low-intensity forest management.
We also understand that if you belong to this category, you may find the standard assessment process too complex or expensive. That’s why FSC has a dedicated programme to support these types of operations in achieving certification: including simplified requirements, specialized technical guidance and training, and other resources.
SUPPLYING CONTROLLED WOOD
Not all companies are able to source 100 per cent FSC-certified wood for their products. In this instance, they can supplement it with controlled wood from a forest management company that has achieved controlled wood certification. In order for forest owners and managers to gain this certification, and supply controlled wood, they must meet the FSC controlled wood standard.
Meeting this standard means that the material sourced has not been harvested illegally, in violation of traditional or civil rights, or in a way that threatens high conservation value (HCV) areas. Controlled wood must also not be taken from forests being converted to plantation or non-forest use, or from forests containing genetically modified trees.
2. CHAIN OF CUSTODY CERTIFICATION
A lot can happen to a product between leaving the forest and arriving in the consumer’s hands. From processing to manufacturing to distribution, wood and other forest products go through a complex supply chain.
FSC chain of custody certification verifies that FSC-certified material has been identified and separated from non-certified and non-controlled material as it makes its way along the supply chain from A all the way through to B. To achieve chain of custody certification, your business must meet FSC-STD-40-004 Chain of Custody Certification standard.
ASSURANCE FOR CONSUMERS AND A GATEWAY TO NEW MARKETS
Consumers are increasingly concerned with choosing products that are responsibly sourced and made. FSC chain of custody certification allows companies to use the FSC label, giving consumers assurance about the origin of the products they buy.
If you’re a business hoping to enter markets that are particularly environmentally and socially aware, chain of custody certification is an essential credential. Achieving certification is also a great way to demonstrate compliance with public and private sector procurement policies – such as the EU Ecolabel and US Green Building Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) – that specify environmentally responsible materials.
TYPES OF CHAIN OF CUSTODY CERTIFICATION
There are two types of certification to choose from, depending on the scale and type of your operation:
· For organizations processing or selling forest products: certification of single businesses or facilities, or of multiple sites under multi-site or group certification (this could be for large companies that operate multiple sites, or smaller enterprises that choose to group together to achieve collective certification).
· For projects: one-off certification issued to individual objects or buildings that are totally or partially made using FSC-certified components.
ALTERNATIVE ROUTES TO CERTIFYING FOREST PRODUCTS
Depending on the levels of FSC-certified wood in your products, and the scope of your certificate, you may need to combine your chain of custody standard with additional standards – essentially, extra requirements you’ll need to meet.
The FSC 100% label signifies that a product is made entirely from FSC-certified forest material.
The FSC Mix label lets people know that certified wood has been supplemented with non-certified materials. However, this non-certified material needs to adhere to a certain standard: either the reclaimed wood standard or the controlled wood standard.
By meeting this standard, a forest management company achieves controlled wood certification. This means that the material sourced has not been harvested illegally, in violation of traditional or civil rights, or in a way that threatens high conservation value (HCV) areas. Controlled wood must also not be taken from forests being converted to plantation or non-forest use, or from forests containing genetically modified trees.
The FSC Recycled label denotes that a product is made entirely from recycled or reclaimed material, subject to requirements concerning the purchasing, verification, and classification of the reclaimed material. At least 85 per cent of reclaimed material must be verified as having been recycled following consumer use to qualify for the FSC Recycled label.
3. FSC CONTROLLED WOOD
FSC controlled wood is material from acceptable sources that can be mixed with FSC-certified material in products that carry the FSC Mix label.
There are five categories of unacceptable material that cannot be mixed with FSC certified materials:
· illegally harvested wood
· wood harvested in violation of traditional and civil rights
· wood harvested in forests in which high conservation values (HCVs) are threatened by management activities (HCVs are areas particularly worthy of protection)
· wood harvested in forests being converted to plantations or non-forest use
· wood from forests in which genetically modified trees are planted.
Controlled wood meets the requirements of the two main FSC controlled wood standards:
· FSC-STD-40-005 V3-1 FSC Requirements for Sourcing FSC Controlled Wood- This standard directs businesses to avoid sourcing material from unacceptable sources.
· FSC-STD-30-010 V2-0 FSC Controlled Wood Standard for Forest Management Enterprises - This standard specifies requirements for forest management enterprises to show that their management practices result in material from acceptable sources.
REVISION OF THE CONTROLLED WOOD SYSTEM – TRAINING AND DIRECTIVE
We have established a training programme to assist our stakeholders in understanding the revised controlled wood standard, which consists of a series of webinars and informational materials.
We want to make the above standard easy to understand and easy for our stakeholders to implement. To make the standard easier to implement, we have combined all advice notes into a single document or ‘directive' (FSC Directive on FSC Controlled Wood). When new advice is approved, this will be added to the directive and the revised document will be reissued.
4. FSC PRINCIPLES & CRITERIA
FSC was born out of a desire to make forest management environmentally responsible, socially beneficial, and economically viable for the long term.
One of its first acts was to develop a set of rules – the first of its kind in forest management – that would define best practice and help forest owners and managers anywhere in the world work towards that goal in the same way. These are the FSC Principles & Criteria (FSC P&C).
There are ten principles that any forest operation must adhere to before it can receive FSC forest management certification. These principles cover a broad range of issues, from environmental impact to community relations and workers’ rights, as well as monitoring and assessment. FSC also provides a number of criteria relating to each principle to provide practical ways of working out whether they are being followed.
Our principles have been developed to be applicable worldwide and relevant to different kinds of forest area and ecosystem, as well as cultural, political, and legal systems. To help forest managers and owners and certification bodies interpret the latest FSC P&C (which was approved in 2015) for their region, we developed the International Generic Indicators (IGIs).
In many countries, FSC standard development groups have developed national forest stewardship standards to interpret the principles and criteria specific to their national context.
5. ACCREDITATION PROGRAM
FSC does not issue certificates itself. Independent certification bodies carry out the forest management and chain of custody assessments that lead to FSC certification.
FSC sets the standards for forest management and chain of custody certification, and defines the procedures that certification bodies should follow in their certification assessments.
Accredited certification bodies are checked regularly to make sure they operate in line with our rules. FSC is the only global forest certification system to have an integrated accreditation program that systematically checks its certification bodies.
Accreditation Services International (ASI) is responsible for checking certification body compliance with our rules and procedures through a combination of field and office audits. All FSC accredited certification bodies must meet the FSC accreditation requirements.
In the same way that certification bodies carry out annual checks on holders of FSC forest management and chain of custody certificates, so ASI carries out annual checks on the certification bodies, through office and field audits.
6. REQUIREMENTS & GUIDANCE
The FSC normative framework is the name given to the collection of FSC policies, standards, and procedures that are mandatory for certificate holders and FSC-accredited certification bodies.
We also publish guidance documents containing technical information, but these are considered informative, rather than normative. To find out about a specific policy, standard, or procedure, search the FSC Document Catalogue.
TRANSPARENT AND INCLUSIVE PROCESSES
All our members and stakeholders are encouraged to participate in the development and review of our normative framework. You can join a committee as a technical advisor; provide feedback in a public consultation of a normative document; or even become a member of a consultative forum. You can find all opportunities for participation in the FSC system in our Processes and Reviews section, and make sure to sign up for our bi-weekly newsletter to have all updates delivered directly to your inbox.
7. NATIONAL FOREST STEWARDSHIP STANDARDS
The FSC Principles and Criteria (P&C) set out the global requirements for achieving FSC forest management certification. However, any international standard for forest management needs to be adapted at the regional or national level in order to reflect the diverse legal, social and geographical conditions of forests in different parts of the world.
The process for developing the FSC Forest Stewardship Standards (FSS) follows the requirements set out in the FSC procedure document FSC-STD-60-006 V1-2 named “Process requirements for developing and maintenance of National Forest Stewardship Standards”.
The FSC Forest Management Program advises National Standards Development Groups (SDGs) as they work through the process of developing a National Forest Stewardship Standard. This process requires the addition of indicators, verifiers, norms, guidance and in some cases interpretations to the FSC P&C. The FSC P&C together with a set of such indicators approved by the FSC International Board’s Policy and Standards Committee (PSC), constitute an FSC National or Regional Forest Stewardship Standard.
When consensus is reached at national or regional level, the FSC Forest Management Program evaluates the National Forest Stewardship Standard to ensure they fully reflect FSC’s requirements on Structure and Content of National Forest Stewardship Standards FSC-STD-60-002(V1-0) and also that a credible process was followed.
The FSC Policy and Standards Committee that has been delegated by the FSC Board of Directors to approve Regional and National Forest Stewardship Standards meets and make a decision over a pre-approved standard.
8. PROCESSES AND REVIEWS
FSC is transparent, democratic, and inclusive, and there are many opportunities for all our stakeholders to participate. We are defined by our unique ability to convene diverse groups to find innovative solutions to forestry issues, and value input from all regions and sectors.