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 is mandatory for all FSC certificate holders who are entitled to use the FSC trademarks and sets out how to use the FSC trademarks correctly. The standard covers use of the FSC trademarks on FSC certified products, use for promotion of FSC certified products, and for promotion of the company's status as an FSC certificate holder. This standard forms the basis for evaluation and approval by FSC accredited certification bodies of all certificate holders' FSC trademark use.
This standard applies to forest management-accredited certification bodies assessing conformity with the applicable FSC normative requirements during controlled forest management evaluations including pre-evaluations, main evaluations, surveillance evaluations and step-up evaluations of single management units, forest management groups, and single legal entities managing multiple management units.
This standard defines the normative requirements for FSC accreditation for controlled forest management certification.
This standard specifies the requirements applicable at the level of the Management Unit (MU) that allows persons or entities to demonstrate that the products supplied from that MU come from controlled forest management (CFM). Controlled forest management respects and upholds legality and customary and human rights, including The ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. It also maintains or enhances social, cultural, environmental, and High Conservation Values (HCV) of the forests and prevents deforestation and degradation - and is free of genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
The present document contains certification requirements for certifying forest operations in Chinese Taipei, developed in accordance with FSC's normative document for the development and maintenance of FSC Forest Stewardship Standards. Revisions of FSC Forest Stewardship Standards are ongoing, and all existing standards will be transferred to the revised Principles & Criteria version 5-2. All standards are valid until replaced by a new FSC Forest Stewardship Standard.
This document provides an up to date list of countries for which the SLIMF eligibility criteria differ from those specified for international use in “FSC-STD-01-003 V1-0 EN: SLIMF Eligibility Criteria” .
FSC is an international organization that provides a system for voluntary accreditation and independent third-party certification. This system allows certificate holders to market their products and services as the result of environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial and economically viable forest management. FSC also sets standards for the development and approval of FSC Stewardship Standards which are based on the FSC Principles and Criteria. In addition, FSC sets standards for the accreditation of conformity assessment bodies (also known as certification bodies) that certify compliance with FSC's standards. Based on these standards, FSC provides a system for certification for organizations seeking to market their products as FSC certified.
Version 4-0 is still applicable to those territories which have FSC certified forests but do not have Forest Stewardship Standards based on Version 5-0. Version 4-0 is available for download here: FSC-STD-01-001 Principles and Criteria for Forest Stewardship V4-0
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.