System integrity

A unique feature of FSC is our Policy for Association. Under this policy, any organization connected with FSC must not engage in unacceptable practices, including:

• Practices that lead to permanent deforestation
• Destruction of high conservation value areas and species
• Illegal logging
• Human and traditional rights violations
• Workers’ rights violations
• Use of genetically modified organisms

This policy applies not only to our certificate holders but also to other organizations within their corporate group. It covers destructive practices that take place anywhere, even in forests that aren’t FSC certified.

See how new earth observation technology is helping FSC and its collaborators monitor forest activity.

Businesses, consumers, and other organizations worldwide depend on the integrity of the FSC label. We lead initiatives around the globe to identify, eliminate, and prevent inaccurate and false claims made anywhere in the supply chain.

We do this through:

• Independence and impartiality: Transparency is the foundation of FSC’s certification system. That’s why the independent certification bodies that provide and manage FSC’s forest management and chain of custody certificates have to be accredited by Assurance Services International (ASI), an independent third party.

Additionally, FSC is the only global forest certification system with an integrated accreditation programme that systematically checks its certification bodies. These certification bodies are accountable to strict guidelines to ensure their decisions are made impartially without regard to commercial, financial, or other pressures.

• Integrity investigations: FSC works closely with ASI and certification bodies on investigations into high-risk supply chains of FSC-certified products. Through this process, FSC verifies that any claims made by certificate holders are accurate and match claims of their trading partners.

We’re pioneering new ways of using technology to verify claims made throughout the supply chain, including blockchain and wood identification techniques.

Once a company receives certification, they are permitted to use the FSC trademark. There are three ways in which FSC protects its trademark:

1. If a non-certificate holder is found to be using the FSC trademark, then a legal case of infringement may be initiated.
2. If a certificate holder inadvertently uses the wrong trademark, then FSC makes a request for correcting this inaccurate use.
3. If a certificate holder uses the FSC trademark on a product that is not FSC-certified, then an investigation of false claim is initiated.