Forest Stewardship Standard for Bolivia is Published

The standard becomes effective on 15 Sep 2023.

The second version of the FSC Forest Stewardship for Bolivia applies to all categories of management units as described in section A.2: Scope of the standard, operating in natural forest and plantations.  The standard applies to small or low intensity managed forests (SLIMF) and community forests.  It includes some non-timber forest products as well.

The development process of this second version of the FSS for Bolivia started in 2015 and mainly focused on:

• the adaptation to the FSC Principles and Criteria version 5-2;
• the inclusion of specific indicators for SLIMF;
• Include forest plantations and non-timber forest products in the scope; and
• the inclusion of indicators related to Indigenous Peoples’ and Local Communities’ rights.

A chamber-balanced standard development group conducted the process, following a multi-stakeholder engagement process with companies, NGOs and social stakeholders including representatives of Indigenous Peoples, communities, and smallholders. The draft of the FSS was passed through field testing and stakeholder involvement to ensure its applicability.

"For the country, this standard provides the advantage of having a broader scope, allowing the inclusion of plantations and non-timber forest products in addition to Tropical Forest Management.

Also, this new version was necessary because the existing standard was 19 years old, which shows that Bolivia was one of the first countries to have its own standard," says María Luisa Salvatierra.

The FSS for Bolivia (Spanish version) can be downloaded in the FSC Document Centre.

For any queries on the standard, please contact Ms. Maria Luisa Salvatierra, FSC Standard Development Group Coordinator: m.salvatierra@bo.fsc.org or cfv@bo.fsc.org.