Outcome Orientation

FSC forest management standards are predominantly practice-based and do not inform about the outcomes achieved. At the same time, society is evolving. Consumers are demanding greater transparency and accountability, while legislation and reporting frameworks increasingly require evidence of real-world contributions to sustainability goals. Traditional monitoring and evaluation activities are furthermore not adapted to demonstrate the contributions of FSC certification to broad sustainability goals at scale, given the wide diversity of sustainability topics and forest contexts where FSC-certified forests are found across the globe.

Outcome orientation is being deployed at FSC in the the Principle, Criteria and International Generic Indicators (PCI) and in the national Forest Stewardship Standards (FSS). 

This page provides up-to-date information about the developments and implementation of outcome orientation at FSC. Specifically: 

• A general description of the concept and its deployment in FSC normative framework is available in the Concept Note, in a long and/or short version.
• An exploration of the concept and opportunities of outcome orientation in the PCI is available in the Green Paper. 
• Further clarification on the deployment of outcome orientation in the FSC normative framework is available in the Clarification Note on the concrete proposals in the PCI and the FSS (in development, will be published soon). 
• In addition, some case studies illustrating real life examples of the implementation of outcome orientation in FSS are provided in the case study below. 

The resources listed above are available below. For additional information on outcome orientation in the revision of the Principles, Criteria and International Generic Indicators, visit the PCI Revision Hub, and in the revision of the Requirements for the Deployment and Maintenance of FSC Country Requirements (FSS and FSC RAs), visit here.  

In 2025, we implemented the second phase of the Fast-tracking Biodiversity Assessment project. This phase focused on advancing the development of robust and standardized examples of monitoring requirements to test and explore how these could be developed and incorporated into the FSC standard-setting process, and implemented by stakeholders in Brazil, Finland, and Sweden.

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