Also in this section:
Derogation Applications
Methodology for the Revision of the FSC-US Standards
FSC-US Regional Meetings, Summer ’07 – Summary of discussions
FSC-US Draft Guidance on the Controlled Wood Standards Released for Public Comment
Principles and Criteria
U.S. Regional Standards
Family Forests Program
Regional Standards Review:
Executive Summary and Overviews
Final Assessments
Cross-cutting Issues
Background and Supporting Documents
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Review of the FSC-US Standards
The review is divided into the following sections:
Executive Summary and Overviews
Final Assessments
Cross-cutting issues
A national standard
Family Forest Program
Background and supporting documents
Comments on the final assessments of the FSC regional standards or any other aspect of the standard review process could be submitted through this webpage. Written comments were also welcome and could be sent to the FSC-US office in Washington DC.
Background
The Forest Stewardship Council has a mission to promote environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial and economically viable management of the world’s forests. One of the key methods for accomplishing this mission is through the development of standards based on agreed principles for responsible forest management.
In the U.S. there is a set of nine regional standards that have been developed based on the FSC Principles and Criteria. These standards are used to measure compliance of forest management operations to the FSC Principles and Criteria. Each standard has a unique set of indicators that were developed, and are used, to assess forest management operations in each region.
The Forest Stewardship Council requires that national and regional standards be reviewed and revised at least every five years. The Standard Review is a first step in the process to revise the U.S. regional standards.
Our review of the standards found significant issues, but in general, the critique of the standards judged them to be well-written and functional under the current FSC audit system. The review also regarded the standards to be achievable, measurable, and based in sound scientific and social principle.
In addition to issues regarding the design and wording of the standards, the review raised three cross-cutting issues that may require our attention. These were:
- The review suggests more extensive inclusion of “notes of intent” be included in revised standards. These notes could provide important perspective on what the standards are meant to achieve.
- The review proposes that FSC-US consolidate the nine regional standards into a national standard that incorporates regional variations. Recognition of regional, state, and local variation is of utmost importance in FSC standards. This recognition is important not only to reflect regional differences in legal, social, economic, and environmental conditions, but also to reflect preferences of local stakeholders, a key component of the FSC system and something that distinguishes it from other certification systems. The argument for harmonization or unification to a national standard is not to limit intentional and logical regional variation but is seen as important to improve consistency in certification decisions, auditability and insurance of standard integrity. The review found that the current standards are similar in intent across the Principles and Criteria. Furthermore, when regional differences were appropriate, seldom did the current regional configurations aid in making the standards better.
- The review also found that the current regional standards are generally not approachable from the perspective of the family forest owner or manager. The standards are also difficult to audit or implement on small properties. The review recommends that the revision of the standards address these issues through the development of specific family forest standards or address family forests explicitly in any revised standards. In addition, an important need is to include extensive guidance focused towards the needs of family forests and their owners.
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