The revised Ecosystem Services Procedure V2-0 is published January 2, 2025 Category : General news The revised FSC-PRO-30-006 Ecosystem Services Procedure V2-0 is the conclusion of a more than two-year revision process and offers managers of FSC-certified forests and sponsors improved and new ecosystem services impacts, more robust impact demonstration requirements, clearer promotion and sponsorship requirements among other improvements! FSC-PRO-30-006 Ecosystem Services Procedure offers a voluntary framework to demonstrate the positive impact of responsible forest management practices on ecosystem services, thereby generating verified ecosystem services impacts. It also allows forest managers and sponsors to make ecosystem services claims to promote and communicate about verified ecosystem services impacts as part of their broader sustainability strategies. This procedure can be used to demonstrate the positive impact on seven types of forest ecosystem services: biodiversity conservation, carbon sequestration and storage, water services, soil conservation, recreational services, cultural practices and values, and air quality. Since version 1 of the procedure was first published in 2018, ecosystem services markets have evolved substantially. Version 2-0 of the procedure provides the robustness and integrity required by today’s ecosystem services markets and adds important social safeguards. Key changes include improved and new ecosystem services impacts, clearer requirements for forest management groups, more robust impact demonstration requirements, a new revenue sharing mechanism, clearer promotion and sponsorship requirements and other improvements. The procedure allows the use of validated and verified ecosystem services impacts and associated claims for various objective, for example: communicating data-driven storytelling, providing third-party verified evidence of positive impacts in mandatory or voluntary non-financial sustainability disclosures, incentivizing and rewarding positive action/ impact within a value chain to advance key sustainability targets, providing evidence that an ES impact has happened, triggering or justifying payments for ecosystem services. At the November 2024 FSC Board of Directors’ meeting, the revised Ecosystem Services Procedure was approved, culminating a revision process of more than two years. You can find the revised procedure on FSC’s Document Centre. Important dates and the transition period: Publication: 1 January 2025 Effective date: 1 July 2025 Transition end date: 31 December 2026 Verified or validated ecosystem services impacts granted under the previous version (V1-2) remain valid: For five years after the evaluation date; OR Until the next forest management main evaluation if such evaluation falls within the transition period of this revised version (V2-0) In April 2025, to align with ISO requirements and the German national accreditation body “DAkkS”, the procedure will be (re)published without the requirements that are currently in “Part V: Evaluation requirements” (“CB requirements”). Such requirements will be published in FSC-STD-20-007 Forest Management Evaluations also in April. Any changes to the dates or approach will be publicly communicated. The revised procedure will be accompanied by a revised Guidance document FSC-GUI-30-006 Guidance for Demonstrating Ecosystem Services Impacts. The Guidance is planned to be published in April 2025. We are hosting a set of actor-specific webinars in upcoming months to offer effective support for a smooth transition to the revised version and enable its uptake amongst the connected actors. We are hosting a set of actor-specific webinars in upcoming months to offer effective support for a smooth transition to the revised version and enable its uptake amongst the connected actors. The first of those webinars takes place on 19 February 2025 with interpretations into Spanish and French - register below for your seat: Wednesday, 19 February 2025 09:30-11:00 CET Wednesday, 19 February 2025 16:30-18:00 CET Anyone interested to stay informed about the implementation is invited to sign up to the Consultative Forum (here). Learn more about this revision process under Current Processes here. Phase 2 of the revision of the procedure is in its conceptual stage. Phase 2 will study how to implement key elements of Motion 49/2021 and Motion 53/2021. Learn more about Phase 2 on its process pages: Process page for Motion 49/2021 Process page for Motion 53/2021