GA update 5 November 2008 … “If nobody is happy, but most can accept the result, then we have found at good compromise” said the Executive Director of FSC Andre de Freitas in his opening speech at the FSC general …

Editoral - Wednesday 5 November 2008 … Editorial by Søren Dürr Grue, NEPCon While respecting core ILO conventions is mandatory in FSC forest certification, no such requirements are present in the chain of custody rules applying to the rest of the supply …

FSC - CB side meeting … On Monday, Greenpeace released Holding the Line with FSC: Recommendations and progress to date on Certification Body and FSC performance following a critical analysis of a range of ‘controversial …

P&C review … During a side event held on Monday, the status of the review process for the FSC global Principles and Criteria (P&C) was presented The P&C form the overall framework for all FSC forest management certification …

TFT - CB ranking … What will happen if major NGOs stop supporting FSC? This question was raised by the Scott Poynton, Director of Tropical Forest Trust at the FSC General …

… NI governance review … By Loa Dalgaard Worm, director of FSC Denmark and Uwe Sayer, Director of FSC Germany: It is difficult to act when you don’t know what … to see the show! This lack of definition has been true for FSC National Initiatives (NIs) for years now, and NIs have …

Mega-forestry … A side meeting about FSC certification for mega forestry operations turned into a discussion about whether large concession areas with intact forest landscapes are FSC certifiable at …

SLIMF rules in Sweden … New gates are opening for small private forest operations in Sweden: FSC-Sweden is launching a project developing special FSC forest management indicators for small and low-intensity managed (SLIMF) forests in …

CPI 2008 … In the FSC Controlled Wood standard, the corruption level of a country is one of 4 indicators used for evaluating the risk of sourcing illegal wood from that …

FSC P&C review … While most FSC standards and rules have been developing fast, the true backbone of the FSC system - the global FSC principles and criteria for responsible forest management - has remained constant throughout the 15 years since the Forest …

First stakeholder feedback on the Global Risk Assessment … The launch of the Global Risk Assessment website last month has generated encouraging response from the FSC community. The majority of comments welcome the initiative, and many provide important …

Pilot project to enhance smallholder certification in Denmark … A new project focusing on innovative ways of providing access to certification for small forest operations in Denmark will soon be …

EU timber legislation … On the 17th of October, the EU revealed a package including two initiatives that aim to curb global deforestation and reduce the EU's import of illegal …

Freitas Key challenges … Since André de Freitas took office as Executive Director of FSC International Centre in June this year, he is charged with the impressive task of steering the Forest Stewardship Council into the …

Editorial … Editorial by Peter Feilberg, Director of NEPCon When FSC welcomes its members to the 5th ordinary assembly in Cape Town, South Africa, the organisation can also celebrate a truly impressive growth in number of certificates as well as positive …

CB performance side event … “Regaining Credibility and Rebuilding Support” is the title of a joint statement released today by a powerful group of 6 key organisations within the FSC System: FERN, Greenpeace, Inter-African Forest Industry, Precious Woods, …

Plantations IMAFLORA … An Impact Assessment recently conducted by researchers from Sao Paulo University shows clear benefits of FSC certifying plantations in the Southern part of …

… … A report released by Greenpeace on Monday confirms that FSC is already deeply engaged in solving its credibility …

Draft advice note helps publishers … FSC has just sent out a new draft advice note regarding the use of chain of custody certified contractors. This draft policy promises to help solving a current bottleneck in the CoC …

Risk assessments available … Risk assessments developed by companies certified through NEPCon according to the FSC controlled wood standard (FSC-STD-40-005 version 2.1) may now be found at …