The first FSC Interim Forest Stewardship Standard for Slovenia Published

The standard becomes effective on 01 October 2023.

The new FSC Interim Forest Stewardship Standard (IFSS) for Slovenia has been published and becomes effective from 1 October 2023. Forest Stewardship Standards (FSS) are the key mechanism to transfer FSC’s Principles & Criteria into forest management on the ground. They are FSC‘s tool to promote responsible forestry around the world, by ensuring social responsibility, environmental protection, and economic sustainability.

The process for developing the IFSS for Slovenia included consultations with various stakeholders, reaching a consensus with social, environmental, and economic interests. An additional public consultation of the HCV Framework was conducted to raise awareness in interested parties on this process, and to organize open discussion on key changes. Relevant comments were incorporated into HCV Framework draft, and one representative of environmental interests said:

It is the first time that the protection of sacred natural sites in Slovenia is mentioned in this kind of document.

A total of 265,000 ha of Slovenian forests are FSC-certified. Slovenian State Forest Company (SiDG) is the FSC Forest Manamgement (FM) certificate holder with the largest forest surface. Seven private forest owners also FM certified under Group Certification Scheme, managed by the SiDG. An additional 359 companies have valid FSC Chain of Custody certificate; the first one was issued in 2006. The potential barrier for the future of certification process in Slovenia could be the fragmented ownership of forests. On the other hand, guidelines were adopted at the national level for the intensification of the forest production and the increase of the processing of forest products within Slovenia.

The adoption with the new IFSS would provide many benefits to certificate holders including better and expanded market access, strengthened image and status in the market, and the use of FSC^TM label for promotional/marketing purposes. In the future, climate change will bring new challenges to the silviculture and protection of forests, and the FSC Interim Forest Stewardship Standard for Slovenia can be one of the tools to solve them.

The IFSS for Slovenia (English version) can be downloaded at the FSC Document Centre. Please contact nationalstandards@fsc.org for any enquries regarding the standard.