Celebrating FSC’s partnership with Assurance Services International

FSC was born with a mission to promote environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial, and economically viable management of the world's forests through a certification system for companies in the forestry sector. Ensuring the integrity of this system requires more than good intentions – it needs trust, transparency, and rigorous checks. That’s where Assurance Services International (ASI) comes in.

ASI was established in 2005 as the accreditation body for Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and celebrated its 20^th anniversary in November 2025. Today, it provides impartial assurance services through accreditation and oversight of certification bodies (CBs), integrity investigations, and activities that drive continuous improvement across complex sustainability contexts. 

Over the past two decades, FSC and ASI have worked together as partners to protect and strengthen the integrity of FSC’s certification system. This partnership is a story of collaboration, innovation, and a shared mission – to build a future where forests and the people who depend on them thrive. 

What does ASI do for FSC?

ASI is FSC’s assurance partner in the certification system. Their role includes overseeing the performance of certification bodies and working together with FSC in strengthening certification’s integrity by:

• accrediting CBs that audit certified companies (certification holders) against FSC standards;
• overseeing the work of CBs to ensure they conform with FSC’s standards;
• investigating allegations of wrongdoing by certificate holders who try to defraud the FSC system, make false claims, or cause harm to the environmental and social integrity of the certification system;
• identifying and monitoring risky FSC-certified supply chains through transaction verification based investigations and other interventions;
• conducting studies on the performance of CBs to identify challenges they face;
• supporting FSC to improve CB performance by developing knowledge resources and participating in calibration workshops FSC organizes for CBs. 

Recognizing the value of the knowledge generated from the various assurance and integrity investigations and studies, FSC and ASI have jointly developed knowledge products for CBs, including:

1. Core Labour Requirements Manual and Toolkit
2. Anti-fraud Guidance

How does FSC ensure the quality of ASI’s services?

The working relationship FSC shares with ASI is rooted in transparency. 

FSC’s partnership with ASI is defined through legally binding contracts that define ASI’s responsibilities, tasks and associated timelines, and key performance indicators (KPIs). FSC regularly reviews ASI’s progress through structured reporting and planning cycles. These include quality control mechanisms to ensure that ASI’s work meets the FSC needs. 

FSC and ASI have developed key performance indicators (KPIs) that measure the quality and quantity of ASI’s services. Annual evaluations against these KPIs are a key component of this partnership and  grounded in the contractual framework.  

FSC reviews ASI’s performance against indicators that cover aspects like oversight of CB performance, competence, timeliness, communication, collaboration, and timely identification of integrity risks.

FSC’s annual evaluation dives into details such as:

• number of assessments ASI planned versus completed;
• non-conformities raised per year and per CB, elaborating on the trends that they reveal;
• incidents and complaints against certificate holders or CBs – revised and closed;
• analysing trends and risks to the integrity of the FSC scheme;
• mitigation measures such as assessments, investigations and calibration sessions conducted with CBs, as well as the follow up actions undertaken to correct identified issues;
• ASI's performance as perceived by CBs and other stakeholders;
• measures ASI takes to ensure that its assessors are qualified and up-to-date in verifying FSC standards;
• external audits of ASI conducted by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and ISEAL, assessing its quality of management and competence.

Achievements in 2024 and 2025 

Between 2024 and 2025, ASI accredited six new CBs in 2025 and continued its robust oversight activities of all FSC-accredited CBs. Performance data collected and analysed by ASI show that most CBs meet or exceed requirements. However, where there are performance issues, ASI takes action in line with its stepwise sanctioning process. For example, ASI suspended a CB in December 2024 after finding evidence of ‘ghost audits’. 

A general decrease in major nonconformities over the past decade, concurrent with ASI's shift to a risk-based oversight model, indicates sustained improvement in CB performance. However, areas such as dispute handling continue to require focused attention. 

The FSC-ASI collaboration has demonstrated its capacity to respond decisively to critical risks. Insights gained from ASI’s oversight of CBs in Myanmar contributed to FSC introducing additional normative measures for auditing its core labour requirements, followed by further obligations for CBs seeking to continue offering their services in the country.

FSC commissioned ASI to conduct an investigation into the protection of Indigenous Peoples in Voluntary Isolation and Initial Contact (IPVIIC) in Peru. ASI’s findings provided important input in the subsequent development of FSC’s first Advice Note on this topic. This Advice Note strengthens the safeguards which prohibit an overlap between certified forest areas and Indigenous reserves, thereby limiting forest management activities in particularly sensitive areas. This process demonstrates how collaboration between organizations can drive stronger safeguards and more responsible forest stewardship.

Since March 2024, ASI has been involved in supporting FSC with the Eurasia Integrity Workplan. It played an important role by leading investigations to address integrity risks in FSC-certified supply chains across the Eurasian region. Its work included transaction verification investigations, country-wide investigations of CB performance in China and Türkiye, reviews of online marketplaces, collection of wood samples for stable isotope testing, and strengthened oversight of CBs. Through these actions, ASI has helped to identify fraudulent practices, support enforcement actions, and drive systemic improvements in audit quality and supply chain integrity. This work reinforces the credibility and resilience of the FSC system in high-risk contexts and beyond.

Future outlook

The relationship between FSC and ASI has evolved and matured with the changing times and changing needs of both organizations. FSC and ASI have been travelling together on this journey to ensure that the integrity of FSC’s certification system is protected and strengthened for nearly 20 years. Building on the foundations of this relationship, both organizations are looking forward to stronger bonds and more collaboration in the future.

FSC’s members passed Motion 31 at the FSC General Assembly in 2022 to develop normative requirements that become the cornerstone for the relationship between FSC and ASI, safeguarding FSC’s credibility and integrity and increasing transparency. The development of this procedure started in December 2025. 

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