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 Stewardship Council was first formed.
And for good reasons: The FSC global principles and criteria are basically very sound and have served the system and its thousands of users well over the years.
Today, more than 100 million hectares of forest worldwide are FSC-certified.
However, now the time has come when the system needs to adapt to changes and developments. There are several challenges which the system needs to overcome, including the following issues which NEPCon sees as priority areas.
Inclusion of smallholders
While the system has worked very well for larger forest owners, it has been less successful in reaching out to smaller operations.
It has by now become clear that there are bottlenecks for the inclusion of small private forest owners. Together, smallholders own surprisingly large forest areas: In Europe alone, around 50% of the forest land is owned by more than 15 million private owners. Barriers for smallholders to become involved with the FSC scheme remain despite several initiatives to solve them, such as the FSC SLIMF rules for small and low intensity managed forests.
Forest management and carbon emissions
Also, carbon emissions mitigation has become much more important as an environmental aspect of forestry than when the system was first developed back in 1993.
As the world is warming up, it is becoming increasingly clear that forests and forestry play a major role in climate change. Conserving and managing forests responsibly clearly help to reduce the threat of global warming due to carbon emissions. The FSC principles and criteria should include these aspects to ensure that forest owners gain recognition for their positive contribution to solve the climate change issues.
So this seems to be precisely the right time for revising the global FSC Principles and Criteria, as decided by the FSC Board. The challenges related to smallholders and carbon emissions will hopefully be reflected in the revised standards, which are expected to be ready by the end of 2009. We also hope that the review process will revise the general wording of the standard to become even more user-friendly, clear and without any room for misunderstanding.
Join the review process
If you are an FSC member, you can apply to become a member of the working group reviewing the global standards. Applications must be filed before 2 October.
