FSC Announces Disassociation from Korindo Group

Failure to agree on the independent verification process has prompted FSC to terminate Korindo’s certificates.

Bonn Germany – The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) announced today its decision to disassociate from Korindo. To implement this decision, FSC has terminated Korindo’s trademark licenses with FSC, and this termination will have effect from 16 October 2021.

Prior to the FSC Board of Directors’ decision, Korindo was working to achieve significant social and environmental improvements as outlined in a set of preliminary conditions defined by FSC in 2019.

The Board requested to receive progress updates to ensure that a credible, timebound and independently verified process was in place, and that visible progress was made against the commitments. However, FSC and Korindo were not able to agree on the procedure to put in place independent verification of progress, and this led to delays in FSC’s ability to verify and report Korindo’s progress against these conditions.

“It had become an untenable situation for FSC that we were not able to verify improvements in Korindo’s social and environmental performance against the agreed preliminary conditions. This is why the Board decided to disassociate,” says Kim Carstensen, FSC International Director General. “We believe this will give us clarity and a breath of fresh air while Korindo continues its efforts to improve social and environmental performance.”

The case started in 2017, when Mighty Earth submitted a policy for association complaint to FSC, alleging Korindo’s involvement in deforestation, human rights abuses and destruction of high conservation values in its forestry operations in Indonesia.

FSC acknowledges Korindo’s commitment in the last year to meet the preliminary conditions set out by FSC to ensure improvement for the benefit of the forests in which they operate and for the people depending on them.

FSC appreciates the indications it has received that Korindo is still committed to showcase further progress in the future. On this basis, FSC is committed to working with Korindo to re-enter into a formal process to potentially end the disassociation. Such a process could be started in 2022 based on the requirements defined in FSC’s policy for association remediation procedure, which is currently being developed.

For more information on the Korindo case and its history, please read the FAQs below.