FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) Certificate

WHAT IS FSC?

FSC, which was established in Mexico in February 1994, is a legal, global, not-for-profit organisation dedicated to the promotion of responsible forest management worldwide. Its registered Office is located in Bonn, Germany but as a global organisation, it has agencies around the World.

FSC’s main mission is to build a standard of harvesting, maintaining and processing the forest without harming the forest’s biodiversity, productivity and ecological processes. By acting like that, FSC becomes an equilibratory agent between the local people and enterprises that benefit from forest resources and the forest itself.

The FSC system allows business and consumers to identify, purchase and use wood, paper and other products made with materials from well-managed forest and/or recycled sources.

Since 2008, more than 100-hectare forestry land in 79 countries was certified according to the FSC standards. The label of FSC is a factor for people to be able to choose the certified wooden products.

Purpose of FSC

According to Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations’ (FAO) reports, the half of the world’s forest is destroyed. FSC Works against disruption and violation of forest laws and deforestation.

The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) shall promote environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial, and economically viable management of the world’s forests.

The world’s forests meet the social, ecological, and economic rights and needs of the present generation without compromising those of future generations.

Environmentally Appropriate

Environmentally appropriate forest management ensures that the harvest of timber and non-timber products maintains the forest’s biodiversity, productivity, and ecological processes.

Socially Beneficial

Socially beneficial forest management helps both local people and society at large to enjoy long term benefits and also provides strong incentives to local people to sustain the forest resources and adhere to long-term management plans.

Economically Viable

Economically viable forest management means that forest operations are structured and managed so as to be sufficiently profitable, without generating financial profit at the expense of the forest resource, the ecosystem, or affected communities. The tension between the need to generate adequate financial returns and the principles of responsible forest operations can be reduced through efforts to market the full range of forest products and services for their best value.

Ten Rules for Responsible Forest Management

• Comply with all applicable laws, regulations and nationally-ratified international treaties, conventions and agreements.
• Maintain or enhance the social and economic wellbeing of workers.
• Identify and uphold Indigenous Peoples’ legal and customary rights of ownership, use and management of land, territories and resources affected by management activities.
• Contribute to maintaining or enhancing the social and economic wellbeing of local communities.
• Efficiently manage the range of multiple products and services of the Management Unit to maintain or enhance long term economic viability and the range of environmental and social benefits.
• Maintain, conserve and/or restore ecosystem services and environmental values of the Management Unit, and shall avoid, repair or mitigate negative environmental impacts.
• Have a management plan consistent with its policies and objectives and proportionate to scale, intensity and risks of its management activities. The management plan shall be implemented and kept up to date based on monitoring information in order to promote adaptive management. The associated planning and procedural documentation shall be sufficient to guide staff, inform affected stakeholders and interested stakeholders and to justify management decisions.
• Demonstrate that, progress towards achieving the management objectives, the impacts of management activities and the condition of the Management Unit, are monitored and evaluated proportionate to the scale, intensity and risk of management activities, in order to implement adaptive management.
• Maintain and/or enhance the High Conservation Values in the Management Unit through applying the precautionary approach.
• Management activities conducted by or for the organisation for the management unit shall be selected and implemented consistent with the organisation’s economic, environmental and social policies and objectives and in compliance with the Principles and Criteria collectively.

https://www.fsc-uk.org/en-uk

What is FSC-CoC?

FSC-CoC (Chain of Custody) proves that the FSC materials and products were checked at every step of processing. So, end-users can be sure that the materials and products are genuinely FSC certified. Every and each of the companies involved manufacturing, repackaging, pack-splitting, relabelling, resizing, cutting or adding their own components to the original ones must be FSC certified to be able to use FSC label on their products and/or sell them with an FSC claim.

How to get FSC Certified?

If you are interested in having a FSC Certificate, you will followthese five steps:

• You will contact one of the FSC accredited certification agencies to get the necessary information about the system and the requirements for the certification.
• You will submit a certification agency you would like to work with and sign an agreement with them.
• You must ensure that an appropriate Forest Management/Chain of Custody Standards are in place.
• Your company will have an assessment by one of the FSC certification bodies, they will do an on-site audit they will provide you a report afterwards.
• You will gain certification approval. You will be able to display your FSC certification code and approval on your website so that people can check it.