FSC Releases Three New Advice Notes on FSC Forest Stewardship Standards

Advice notes to implement FSC Board decisions and to enforce the maintenance of Forest Stewardship Standards are now available in the Document Centre.

The three new advice notes attached, have been approved and made effective as of 16 December 2021. 

FSC-ADV-60-006-02 (V1-0) EN on Incorporation of new or revised International Generic Indicators introduced in subsequent versions of FSC-STD-60-004 into National Standard (National Forest Stewardship Standard and Interim National Standard).

• Formally implements the decision made by FSC Board in its 87th Meeting (see relevant news item from 13 July 2021 here).
• Targeted to Standard Developers (Standard Development Groups and Certification Bodies) whose Forest Stewardship Standards are not based on new and revised version of IGIs
• Regulates the incorporation of new and revised IGIs into national standards in the following ways:
  1. For national standards in development or revision at the time of the approval of a new version of FSC-STD-60-004 and are at a stage prior to the launch of the first consultation, changes to the IGI shall be addressed within the ongoing development or revision process.
  2. For national standards not in development or revision at the time of the approval of a new version of FSC-STD-60-004 or have passed the launch of the first consultation in an ongoing development or revision process, changes to the IGI shall be addressed no later than in the next scheduled regular review and revision of those standards. 

FSC-ADV-60-006-03 (V1-0) EN on the cut-off date for transfer of national standards from P&C Version 4 to P&C Version 5-2. 

• Formally implements the decision made by the FSC Board in its 87th Meeting (see relevant news item from 13 July 2021 here).
• Establishes a cut-off date for national standard based on P&C V4 to transfer all the existing national standards to the latest P&C V5-2.
• Targeted to Standard Developers (Standard Development Groups and Certification Bodies) whose Forest Stewardship Standards based on P&C V4 have not been registered for transfer or transferred to P&C V 5-2.

FSC-ADV-60-006-04 (V1-0) EN on use of FSC-PRO-60-006 V2-0 (Development and Transfer of National Forest Stewardship Standards to the FSC P&C V 5-1) for the revision of an existing P&C V5-X NFSS.

• Provides clarification of the use of FSC-PRO-60-006 V2-0 and additional requirements for revision of an existing P&C V5-X national standard.
• Targeted to Standard Development Groups whose Forest Stewardship Standard based on P&C V 5-X is due for revision.

For any queries, please contact the National Standards team at nationalstandards@fsc.org