Strengthening oversight of Intact Forest Landscapes in Brazil

Brazil is home to some of the world's most significant Intact Forest Landscapes (IFLs) – large, unfragmented stretches of primary forest that are critical to biodiversity and climate resilience. Ensuring these landscapes are effectively managed and protected under FSC certification is a priority for Assurance Services International (ASI), FSC’s global assurance provider. Through oversight of Certification Bodies (CBs), ASI plays a vital role in identifying and addressing gaps in how forest certification requirements are implemented on the ground. 

The certification landscape in Brazil 

Brazil currently has 155 FSC Forest Management (FM) Certificate Holders (CHs). Of these, 25 CHs have had IFLs within the scope of their certificates at some point between 2017 and 2025. These data point to the significant importance of IFLs within FSC-certified areas in Brazil. ASI data shows that CBs have released 41 Non-Conformities (NCs) against the indicators of FSC Principle 9 on High Conservation Values, out of which 10 findings were related to the IFL management during this period. These findings represent roughly 2% of all the findings released to the relevant CHs – a small number that suggests a generally high level of CH conformance with FSC requirements. 

ASI’s data-driven oversight: findings and trends 

ASI’s role is to evaluate CB performance, ensuring their audits are robust, consistent, and aligned with FSC standards. Between 2017 and 2025, ASI conducted 42 assessments in Brazil. Given the importance of IFL, 13 of these assessments focused on FM certificates with IFLs in scope. Since 2022, ASI’s approach to monitor FSC requirements for managing IFLs includes prior GIS analysis, taking account of  FSC Advice Note ADV-20-007-18. In each assessment, ASI’s specially trained experts corroborate the GIS results and satellite imagery, and scrutinize these against data from the respective CH.  

These GIS-driven assessments revealed 15 non-conformances at CB and CH level that are directly related to the IFL, revealing some common problems in how IFLs are managed and audited. These data show that some CHs do not correctly follow the inventory methods from Global Forest Watch, calculate degraded IFL areas, integrate IFLs into their Forest Management Plans, consider third-party impacts, and adjust their harvest limits or conservation plans. There were also cases where CBs failed to properly check IFL data for these CHs. In addition, ASI found 14 more findings related to High Conservation Value (HCV) identification and management, signaling broader issues in the way CBs apply critical FSC criteria in Brazil. 

Raising the bar for IFL oversight 

In light of the identified deficiencies and to better understand how IFL requirements can be upheld, FSC has engaged ASI to conduct a broader review of the implementation of IFL requirements by CHs in Brazil. The ongoing investigation, will apply the best available information and the normative methodology to provide FSC with quantitative information about IFLs in Brazil, the effectiveness of the certification process, and potential areas for further improvement. 

FSC is strongly committed to the responsible management of IFLs and is taking an innovative approach to frame normative requirements. The Advice Note ADV-20-007-18 prescribes the employment of specific verification measures, stipulating a transparent methodology in conjunction with objective GIS data. This Advice Note and its embedded methodology also provide the basis for a comprehensive analysis of IFL management practices at both the national and global levels. 

This news was first published on ASI's website.