If you are a business holding FSC Chain of Custody Certification or a Promotional Licence, you are already providing evidence to your customers that you care about reducing the environmental impact of your business and improving its sustainability. Would you like to go one step further?
Formerly known as Ecosystem Services Claims, FSC Verified Impact is a way to demonstrate and communicate the positive impacts of responsible forest management on the conservation or restoration of ecosystem services. FSC’s Verified Impact builds on FSC forest management certification by providing forest managers and owners with a framework for protecting ecosystem services and scientifically measuring the positive impacts on their efforts. Impacts can be verified for carbon sequestration, biodiversity conservation, watershed services, soil conservation, and recreational services.
A number of small and community woodlands in the UK are interested in using FSC Verified Impact, as it improves their ability to attract sponsorship, helping them continue managing and enhancing their woodlands for the benefit of their local communities and the environment.
What is in it for the sponsor?
FSC Verified Impact is a collaborative offering by FSC that matches businesses to responsible forestry projects. It provides an opportunity for companies to sponsor forest managers to protect or restore ecosystem services and receive credible assurance with robust evidence that they are investing in a forest which has verifiable ecosystem services outcomes. FSC Verified Impact provides an approach to systematically measure and report impacts on specific forest ecosystem services, with an extra level of monitoring and measurement (above that required under FSC forest management certification) to provide additional assurance.
As a sponsor, you can use the FSC trademarks to tell the story of the unique forest, the connection to your business operations and promote your support for protecting its ecosystem services.
Communication around ecosystem services can take many forms: from an article on your website, a photo story in a brochure, a section in your annual sustainability report, or a video.
As well as being able to communicate your sponsorship of ecosystem services to your customers, there may be opportunities for your staff to become involved through tree planting or citizen science days where they can learn more about woodland maintenance and gather evidence to show the positive impacts of the woodlands.
Find out more
Learn about the first project in the UK to use FSC Verified Impact in the video below.
If you have any questions or would like to discuss our approach to ecosystem services further, please contact Karen, Forests & Ecosystem Services Manager at FSC UK on karen@fsc-uk.org
You can also find more information about FSC Verified Impact on the FSC International website here, including case studies from projects around the world.