National Forest Stewardship Standards
Integrating local expertise with the FSC system
© FSC GD - Milan ReskaThe 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.
Process requirements for the development and maintenance of National Forest Stewardship Standards
The process for developing the FSC National Forest Stewardship Standards (NFSS) follows the requirements set out in the FSC procedure document FSC-STD-60-006 V1-2 also called “Process requirements for developing and maintenance of National Forest Stewardship Standards”.
The FSC Forest Management Program advises FSC registered Standards Development Groups (SDGs) during standards development process. This process requires the addition of indicators, verifiers, norms, guidance and in some cases interpretations to the FSC P&C. With the development and approval of the FSC International Generic Indicators - FSC-STD-60-004 V1-0 EN (IGIs) standard, it is required that forest stewardship standards developers use the IGI as a starting point for the development of NFSS. When using the IGI document, standards developers are advised to consider either adopting the indicators therein as they stand, or adapt them in order to address terminology, scope or effectiveness in measuring conformance to an FSC criterion in a regional or national context. It is also possible to suggest new indicators to an NFSS or leave out an IGI from NFSS where SDGs determine that the IGI is inapplicable or otherwise non-contributing in measuring conformance to an FSC criterion in a national context. The FSC P&C together with a set of indicators approved by the FSC International Board’s Policy and Standards Committee (PSC), constitute an FSC National or Regional Forest Stewardship Standard.
DOCUMENTS RELATED TO THE PROCESS, STRUCTURE AND CONTENT OF DEVELOPING FSC NATIONAL FOREST STEWARDSHIP STANDARDS
FSC-STD-60-006 (V1-2) Process Requirements for the Development and Maintenance of National Forest Stewardship Standards
FSC-GUI-60-002 (V1-0) Guideline for Standard Developers for addressing risk of unacceptable activities in regard to scale and intensity
FSC-GUI-30-003 (V1-0) FSC guidelines for the implementation of the right to free, prior and informed consent (FPIC)
FSC-GUI-60-005 (V1-0) Promoting Gender Equality in National Forest Stewardship Standards
UPDATES OF FOREST STEWARDSHIP STANDARDS PROCESSES
When consensus is reached at the 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 makes a decision over a pre-approved standard.
For any enquiries write to Ilia Osepashvili at i.osepashvili@fsc.org or call 0049 228 36766 917
Approval of Forest Stewardship Standards
The Policy and Standards Unit (PSU) in collaboration with the FSC Board's Policy and Standards Committee (PSC) has developed the approval process for forest stewardship standards, that is the FSC-PRO-10-606. The objective of this document is to provide a PSC procedure to ensure a consistent decision making process for the approval of Forest Stewardship Standards (FSS). These standards include:
- National Forest Stewardship Standards (NFSS)
- Interim National Standards (INS)
- Interim Regional Standards (IRS)
- Regional Forest Stewardship Standards (RFS)
- Non-Timber Forest Product (NTFP) Standards
NOTE: This is a PSC and PSU internal standard operating procedure. It is therefore not subject to the rules and regulations outlined in FSC-PRO-01-001, the procedure for the development and revision of FSC normative documents.
