Consultation on revision of FSC's General Accreditation Standard open 

Consultation is open from 17 July to 31 August 2023 for your input. 

FSC is revising the general accreditation standard FSC-STD-20-001 V4-0 General Requirements for FSC Accredited Certification Bodies. The standard ensures that FSC certifications are managed in a competent, consistent, impartial, transparent, rigorous, reliable and credible manner. The standard is revised together with two related procedures FSC-PRO-20-003 Transfer of FSC Certificates and License Agreements and FSC-PRO-20-004 General Requirements for FSC Training Programme. Please access the process page here to learn more about this joint revision.   

As part of the conceptual phase we are conducting a focused consultation. In this conceptual phase, topics that are being consulted include:  

1. Changes triggered by EC regulation 765/2008 

2. Changes proposed to certification bodies operations 

3. Proposal to introduce risk-based approaches to auditing 

4. Changes to strengthen auditors competencies 

Purpose of the consultation is to inform all interested stakeholders about the directional changes due to changes in accreditation related regulation in Europe. Stakeholders can be involved in this consultation to give feedback on the direction of this revision process and, if relevant, identify a solution or a way forward for identified topics. 

If you are interested in participating in this focused consultation, please register here. Only registered participants will get the link to the focused consultation material.  

To complement this consultation, FSC will conduct two webinars for stakeholders to provide feedback and learn more about proposed key changes.

All interested stakeholders are invited. To join, please register in advance using the following links: (webinar content will be the same)

• 15 August 2023, from 9:00 – 10:30, click here to register
• 16 August 2023, 16:00 – 17:30, click here to register
• 23 August 2023, from 14:00 – 15:30, click here to register