Chain of Custody Certification

FSC chain of custody certificate holders are required to implement the FSC core labour requirements in their operations and must be able to demonstrate this to external third-party auditors.

To comply with the FSC core labour requirements, the organization must:

• Not use child labour.
• Eliminate all forms of forced and compulsory labour.
• Ensure that there is no discrimination in employment and occupation.
• Respect freedom of association and the effective right to collective bargaining.

To access more resources on the FSC core labour requirements, please see the downloads and webinars at the bottom of the page.

Core Labour Requirements Self-Assessment Templates

Part of conforming with the FSC core labour requirements is that organizations are required to assess how they already meet the requirements with a self-assessment. To help organizations with implementing the FSC core labour requirements, FSC has developed some country-specific self-assessment templates that provide more details than the generic self-assessment form found in the chain of custody standard.

This list of templates below will be updated as new versions of the self-assessments are created and new countries are added, so check back regularly. Click on a country to download its template or to be taken to the corresponding website.

Core Labour Requirements Equivalence Assessment

With the publication of the FSC core labour requirements, FSC committed to assess the compatibility of other initiatives (such as voluntary sustainability standards (VSS), national and regional regulatory mechanisms, corporate practices, internal procurement policies and sustainability schemes) with the FSC core labour requirements to identify synergies.

The intended outcome of the assessment was to provide FSC approved verification schemes that can be used to demonstrate conformance with the FSC core labour requirements in the FSC Chain of Custody Certification requirements. This mechanism was intended to make the assessment of conformance with the FSC core labour requirements easier for those organizations that also conform with an FSC approved verification scheme.

To ensure that the evaluation of the initiatives is consistent, FSC used the procedure developed to evaluate initiatives.

See the procedure to learn about the evaluation methodology, process timelines, and the process for recommending initiatives for evaluation.

The result of this first phase of core labour requirement equivalence assessment was the approval of one initiative as an FSC approved verification scheme.

SA8000:2014 is considered an FSC approved verification scheme.

For more information, please see FSC-ADV-40-004-24 available in FSC-DIR-40-004.

Controlled wood is uncertified material that can be mixed with FSC-certified material in products that carry the FSC MIX label. Controlled wood is not from FSC-certified forests but rather from areas covered by FSC’s system for avoiding the use of wood from five unacceptable sources:

1. Illegally harvested wood; 
2. Wood harvested in violation of traditional and human rights; 
3. Wood from forests in which high conservation values are threatened by management activities; 
4. Wood from forests being converted to plantations or non-forest use; and 
5. Wood from forests in which genetically modified trees are planted. 

FSC risk assessments

To reduce the likelihood of sourcing material from unacceptable sources, organizations that use controlled wood must also use risk assessments.

FSC has developed risk assessments for 60 countries. They can be found in the FSC Document Centre, and summaries can be found on the FSC risk assessment platform.

Organizations sourcing from areas without an FSC risk assessment must develop their own risk assessments.

The following relevant documents are available to download in the FSC Document Centre:

FSC-STD-40-005 Requirements for Sourcing FSC Controlled Wood