Revised Forest Management Evaluations Standard and revised Risk-Based Approaches Procedure are published

FSC is pleased to introduce the revised FSC-STD-20-007 Forest Management Evaluations Standard, version 4-0, and the revised Procedure FSC-PRO-60-010,  Development of a National Forest Stewardship Standard Risk Assessment, version 2-1.

FSC-STD-20-007 Forest Management Evaluations Standard brings increased transparency and consistency in evaluations by different certification bodies. The revised standard also includes efficiency through outcome-oriented and risk-based forest management evaluations. It provides a framework for certification bodies to determine an appropriate audit method for each type of evaluation and organization.

This revised version is structured to align the content of the forest management evaluations reports with new tools being incorporated for digitization by FSC. This ensures standardization and relevance of data gathered during evaluation processes. FSC’s Digital Audit Reporting Template (DAR) will be updated to reflect changes in the revised standard.

The standard includes revised and new requirements related to small and low intensity managed forests (SLIMF) management units. The requirements are envisioned to further streamline the certification process for SLIMF management units, without compromising the integrity of the FSC system. These requirements are now also extended to Community Forests. The eligibility criteria for SLIMF and Community Forests are further clarified in the upcoming revised FSC-STD-01-003 SLIMF Eligibility Criteria (V2-0).

The standard is published along with the procedure on developing risk assessments (FSC-PRO-60-010) as they have been revised concurrently to allow for alignment and innovations utilizing risk-based approaches. The risk assessments will allow for the future preparation for and application of forest management evaluations to better account for risks. The procedure is for use by FSC Network Partners when conducting a risk assessment of their Forest Stewardship Standards. It was revised to provide further clarifications and specifications. It is accompanied by a guidance document FSC-GUI-60-010.

FSC is organizing information webinars in March for all interested stakeholders on the revised normative documents.

There will be two sessions of the same webinar that will take place on:

• 8 March 2023, at 15:00 pm CET (this session will be simultaneously translated into Spanish and French).

Register here to join the webinar

• 9 March 2023, at 9:30 am CET

Register here to join the webinar

The Forest Management Evaluations Standard V4-0 is available in the Document Centre here.

The Development of a National Forest Stewardship Standard Risk Assessment procedure is available in the Document Centre here.

To read about the Forest Management Evaluations Standard revision process click here. For the Development of a National Forest Stewardship Standard Risk Assessment process click here.