Actions and outcomes

Being part of FSC means striving for better: not just a green tick, but a shared commitment across all operations to protect forests for future generations. That’s why we take action if anyone connected to FSC engages in destructive forestry activities or violates our certification standards.

Dispute Resolution Team
FSC

Taking action

Protecting FSC’s reputation and the integrity of the certification system is very important. We do this through processes and tools that help us identify organizations whose actions are harmful to FSC and the world’s forests.

Before an organization or an individual becomes associated with FSC, we use FSC Check to screen companies and individuals seeking association with FSC and reject those who have engaged in destructive activities.

We have also established processes and developed tools that allow us to identify organizations whose actions either do not conform with the certification standards or violate the provisions of the Policy for Association. Using the principle of establishing ‘clear and convincing evidence’, we investigate allegations of wrongdoing in the form of cases.

 

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Case management

Investigations into high-risk supply chains and assessments of potential violations of the Policy for Association are recorded in the form of cases, based on established processes

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FSC Check

A risk assessment tool that allows us to ensure that the values of organizations and individuals seeking association with FSC are aligned with ours.

Addressing complaints about the system

We believe in constantly striving to improve our performance – the certification system as well as the organization. The process we follow to ensure that grievances are addressed in a fair and timely manner is rooted in our normative framework.

For more information, please refer to Processing Complaints in the FSC Certification Scheme (FSC-PRO-01-008). This document describes the process to be adopted by FSC to ensure a timely, independent and effective resolution of complaints submitted by FSC stakeholders. These can be complaints regarding the FSC normative framework or the performance of FSC International, the FSC Network as well as complaints regarding the performance of ASI.