FSC National Forest Stewardship Standard of Colombia Published

The standard becomes effective on 01 October 2021.

The FSC national standard for Colombia is a modern tool, available to all, that considers all legal, social, and geographical conditions of forests and plantations in the country of Colombia. 

The standard can be used by all types of organizations working in natural forests and plantations, including small and low-intensity managed forests; it is also applicable to a large group of non-timber forest products, such as bamboo and rubber (See section ¨2.2 Scope¨ for more details).  In this way, the standard will contribute to all people and organizations that want to do the maximum possible and not only the minimum necessary to promote and implement responsible forest management in the country, contributing to the generation of benefits for people, fauna, flora and other natural and cultural resources and wealth that contribute to the viability as a society.

The revision process of the NFSS of Colombia started in 2015 and mainly focused on:

• the adaptation to the FSC Principles and Criteria version 5-2;
• the inclusion of indicators related to the identification of rights of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities;
• the inclusion of indicators that uphold principles and rights at work and promote gender equality in employment practices; and
• indicators to protect environmental values, Conservation Area Networks and High Conservation Values.

A chamber-balanced standard development group conducted the revision following a multi-stakeholder engagement process. The revised NFSS was passed through field testing and stakeholder involvement to ensure its applicability.

FSC recognizes the effort and passion of the professionals who gave life to and maintained the dynamics to achieve this new standard; the generosity and trust of companies and other organizations to facilitate this achievement; the active listening to FSC; the sum of complex working days, deliberations and analysis that allowed to understand, reconcile and materialize this new version of the FSC forest management standard. The standard is now available, so that authorities, leaders, social and environmental organizations, autonomous communities, entrepreneurs and in general in Colombia can rely on this tool that will allow them to complete the journey to sustainability.

For any queries on the revised standard, please contact the FSC regional office in Latin America: latinoamerica@fsc.org .

The NFSS for Colombia (Spanish version) can be viewed in the FSCDocument Centre.