Policy and Standards Committee
Sean Cadman
Environmental North
Lineu Siqueira Junior
Economic South
Peggy Smith
Social North
Karin Faellman
Economic North
Jeanette Clark
Social South
Georges Belmond Tchoumba
Environmental South
Alan Thorne
Board Liaison
Sarah Harris
Independent Chair
Role
The PSC acts on behalf of, and makes recommendations for decisions to, the BoD with respect to all technical matters related to the development or revision of FSC Policies, Standards, Procedures and other normative documents. The PSC is further mandated to take approval decisions on national standards developed by national standard development groups.
In addition, the PSC provides guidance and advice to the FSC Performance and Standard Unit (PSU) on which ‘direction’ to take with a policy or standards issue in particular (e.g. policy and standards interpretations) or in general (e.g. on position or discussion papers).
The PSC is accountable to the BoD. All decisions taken by the PSC, except for approval of forest stewardship standards, are considered as recommendations to the BoD, and have to be reported to and confirmed by the BoD. The PSC submits an annual report to the BoD, which includes a self-assessment of PSC’s work.
Structure
The PSC consists of six FSC members, one from each sub-chamber, which are selected by the BoD based on an application process open to all FSC members. The term of PSC members is four years and can be renewed for one additional period.
A neutral non-voting chair can be appointed by the Board who operates on a two-year term which can be regularly extended.
When requested by the BoD, the PSC may identify members to serve in the roles of advisor or liaison persons to relevant normative processes.
Documents
Terms of Reference
FSC Board of Directors – Policy and Standards Committee (PSC) “V5-0”
Approved by the FSC Board of Directors – 20 November 2020
Approval of Forest Stewardship Standards FSC-PRO-10-606
Approval of Forest Stewardship Standards, Procedure (PRO), V(2-1)
The objective of this document is to provide a procedure for the FSC Policy and Standards Committee (PSC) to ensure a consistent decision making process for the approval of Forest Stewardship Standards (FSS).