FSC Blocks Organizations with False Claims in Bamboo Supply Chain

In a recent review, FSC has uncovered several companies deliberately carried false claims and were terminated in the bamboo supply chain transaction verification, but came back with new certificates.

Considering the substantial integrity risks exposed, FSC has decided to terminate and block the companies from certification for the foreseeable future. FSC has terminated and blocked the possibility for any of these companies to acquire a valid license agreement, which is a prerequisite for holding a valid FSC certificate.

The blocked organizations shall not carry out any activities associated with FSC. This includes, but is not limited to, trading FSC-certified products with FSC claims, labelling products as FSC certified, providing outsourcing services of FSC certified materials, joining a group or multi-site certification, etc.

Companies that do not, in good faith, follow the requirements of the FSC system will find themselves increasingly under scrutiny by FSC and Assurance Services International (ASI) as the system takes strong measures against companies that trade with non-conforming products and/or use false FSC claims. FSC recommends certification bodies and buyers to check the certification history of FSC new applicants or FSC suppliers. To get a full list of companies blocked for FSC certification, search on info.fsc.org by sorting certificate status for ‘suspended and blocked’ and ‘terminated and blocked’.

More information about transaction verification results in bamboo supply chains can be found here. Questions can be addressed to: FSCIntegrity@fsc.org