Draft Advice Note on ‘very limited portion’ transferred to the PCI revision process

The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) has decided not to proceed with the accelerated revision of the draft Advice Note FSC‑ADV‑20‑007‑23 V3‑0 Converted area constituting ‘very limited portion’ in IGIs 6.9–6.11 and accounting for restoration, and to transfer the topic to the Principles, Criteria and Indicators (PCI) revision process.

This decision follows a public consultation conducted between 12 September and 12 October 2025, as well as a review by the Policy Steering Group (PSG), an internal decision-making body at FSC International, and recommendation from the Policy and Standards Committee (PSC).

The draft advice note aimed to clarify how restored, formerly converted areas could be accounted for under the ‘very limited portion’ concept, including whether such areas could be deducted from the applicable thresholds. Stakeholders generally viewed incentives for restoration positively and the direction of the draft advice note was welcomed by FSC certificate holders, who constituted the majority of respondents. However, consultation results indicated that the topic is closely related to restoration in a broader context and therefore linked to the FSC Climate and Biodiversity Strategic Framework, FSC Principles and Criteria (P&C) and International Generic Indicators (IGI). These issues were considered to be better addressed through the ongoing PCI revision process and not through an advice note. The public consultation results are documented in the Synopsis Report.

Based on these considerations, the PSG recommended closing the advice note process and addressing the topic within the broader PCI revision process, where policy‑level implications can be examined in a structured, multi‑stakeholder setting. The recommendation was approved by the FSC Director General on 17 December 2025.