Forest management certificate holders
As an FSC certificate holder you are helping to ensure forests for all forever - thank you!
Your FSC forest management certification ensures that your careful and long-term stewardship is recognised, and tested against nationally and internationally agreed standards of responsible forest management.
Standards for FSC forest management in the UK
The FSC Principles and Criteria for Forest Stewardship, underpinned by International Generic Indicators, provide an internationally recognised standard for responsible forest management. These requirements are adapted at the national or sub-national level in order to reflect the diverse legal, social and geographical conditions of forests in different parts of the world.
The formal basis for FSC forest management (FM) certification in the UK is the national forest stewardship standard FSC-STD-GBR-03-2017 V1-0. This presents FM requirements in the context of FSC’s international Principles and Criteria. Most forest managers are more familiar with the UK Woodland Assurance Standard (UKWAS). This has a different, more user-friendly format, and omits the wording of the Principles and Criteria, but contains the same FM requirements.
All current and potential FM certificate holders in the UK should be aware that the Principles and Criteria ordered version of the standard is the formal basis for auditing and decision making. In cases of dispute, this version is considered to be definitive. However, certificate holders are free to use the UKWAS version in their day to day work and in discussions with auditors.
Digital Audit Reports
FSC digital audit reporting focuses on standardizing the existing FSC audit reporting formats into a new single digital format that is machine readable. Standardized data architecture for FSC FM audit reporting will enable us to access properly audit data, aggregate them and to identify trends, outcomes and risk areas in order to evaluate and improve the FSC system. Future FSC Digital audit reporting will also ensure that public summaries are automatically created in a standardized format, making it much easier for researchers and stakeholders to use and analyse the data they contain on an aggregated level.
More information, including a Digital Audit Reporting Template for Forest Management Audits and associated user guide can be downloaded by clicking the link.
Forest management documents
Advice and interpretations
A directive includes all advice issued in relation to a single standard. The relation to a standard is reflected in the document code. An interpretation is a formal normative clarification provided by the FSC Performance and Standards Unit to requirements included in documents of the FSC Normative Framework.
Directives
FSC Directive on Forest Management Evaluations (FSC-DIR-20-007)
Interpretations
Trademark use
The FSC trademarks are the primary communication tools for FSC certificate holders to demonstrate that their products meet the standards set by FSC. Compliance with the FSC trademark standard is mandatory for all FSC certificate holders making use of the FSC trademarks.