This standard stipulates the requirements that shall be followed by organizations certified according to FSC-STD-40-004 or FSC-STD-40-006 for purchasing, verifying and classifying reclaimed forest-based inputs (including materials such as bamboo and cork) for use in FSC Product Groups and FSC Certified Projects.
This standard defines a hierarchical framework which ensures that all FSC Forest Stewardship Standards can be audited in a consistent manner, providing replicable results. This standard also specifies the requirements for certification bodies to adapt their generic standards to local conditions in countries where there is not yet an FSC approved regional, national or sub-national Forest Stewardship Standard. This standard shall apply to certification body generic certification standards used as the basis for FSC certification.
Please note that the content of this normative document has been streamlined into FSC-STD-20-007 Forest Management Evaluations Standard (V4-0)
Publication date: 1 February 2023
Effective date: 1 July 2023
End of transition period: 31 December 2024
The social impacts of forest management mean that forest management is a social as a well as a technical activity. It is not possible to involve all stakeholders in every forest evaluation. It is therefore essential that forest certification and its results should be open to public scrutiny. This is the only way to demonstrate to all interested or affected parties that the certification decisions are justified and acceptable. It is a basic requirement of the FSC scheme that certification bodies make a summary report of each certified forest operation publicly available.
This standard shall be used by all FSC-accredited certification bodies and FSC-accredited National Initiatives for the purpose of defining small and low intensity managed forests (SLIMFs) eligible for application of streamlined certification procedures.
An older version of this normative document exists. To open the old version, please click here .The objective of this standard is to provide the requirements to be followed by FSC accredited certification bodies (CBs) when auditing CoC organizations against applicable requirements of the FSC normative framework and integrating the findings to come to a reliable certification decision. This standard thereby aims to reduce the level of subjectivity and increase the consistency between sampling levels implemented by different CBs across different situations.
This Standard contains the FSC International Generic Indicators (IGI), and is a key document in the FSC certification system. The IGI consist of the Preamble, ten Principles and their associated Criteria and Indicators, Annexes, Instructions for Standard Developers and a Glossary of Terms.
This Glossary is a collection of the most frequently used terms and definitions that have been approved and are used in documents of the FSC Normative Framework, published in the English language.
This standard specifies the process requirements to be followed for the development and revision of regional (supra-national, trans-national), national or sub-national FSC Forest Stewardship Standards by registered Standards Development Groups and endorsed National Initiatives.
This standard specifies the accreditation requirements for all certification bodies operating FSC accredited certification programs. The objective of this standard is to ensure that these programs are managed in a competent, consistent, impartial, transparent, rigorous, reliable and credible manner, thereby facilitating their acceptance on a national and international basis and so furthering international trade and promoting sustainable development.
This module is for voluntary use by organizations applying for or holding FSC certification to extend their certification scope in order to align with the Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 or “EUDR”. The FSC Regulatory Module empowers users to navigate the regulatory landscape effectively, supporting both legal compliance and sustainability best practices. The FSC Regulatory Module sets the framework and requirements to: introduce a due diligence system to support EUDR compliance, including information collection, risk assessment and risk mitigation, gather and transmit precise information on the origin of products, including geolocation and time of production, and ensure that only deforestation-free material enters the FSC chain of custody.
Final Investigation Report Holzindustrie Schweighofer Sept. 2017
Public Summary Complaints Panel Evaluation Report_WWF Germany vs. Holzindustrie Schweighofer_Oct 2016
Policy for Association Cases
Find out the details of past and ongoing cases on organizations that have engaged in the unacceptable activities provided in the Policy for Association, including the outcomes of cases that have been concluded.