"Motions in Motion" are global membership meetings, providing a dedicated space for cross chamber discussions around all statutory motions and each chamber’s top five policy motions. It is a space for negotiation, merging, refinement, and amendments in relation to secretariat feasibility analyses and members’ feedback.
"Motions in Motion" are global membership meetings, providing a dedicated space for cross chamber discussions around all statutory motions and each chamber’s top five policy motions. It is a space for negotiation, merging, refinement, and amendments in relation to secretariat feasibility analyses and members’ feedback.
This High-Level Conference took place online on 10 December 2020.
The purpose of this high-level session was to discuss how different actors can work together to develop forest stewardship and robust verification mechanisms, complementing other efforts carried out under public and private initiatives to meet global targets.
The event had a focus on four main themes:
Climate Change – Julianne Baroody from Verra, which manages a standard for certifying carbon emissions reductions (the Verified Carbon Standard), discussed the climate change mitigation benefits – and potential financial benefits to forest managers – of responsible forest management practices such as those certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).
Biodiversity – Nelson Kroll from Maderacre, a forestry company in the Peruvian Amazon, talked about their engagement to demonstrate positive impact on biodiversity through certification of ecosystem services.
Forests for People and Nature – Juan Anzieta from Arauco, a global forestry company headquartered in Chile, talked about their efforts to create forest value for people through certification of ecosystem services and engagement with surrounding populations.
Human rights (Indigenous Peoples’ rights) – Luis-Felipe Duchicela, Senior Advisor for Indigenous Peoples' Issues at USAID, The United States Agency for International Development, presented their new Indigenous Peoples’ Policy and how many of its ideas are reflected in a new Global Development Alliance with FSC to enable Indigenous Peoples to secure their rights and improve their livelihoods.
The topics covered in the four presentations were brought together in a panel discussion facilitated by HindouOumarou Ibrahim, an environmentalist and advocate for indigenous people.
Over 450 registered participants from around the world joined the presentations and subsequent discussions. You can find the meeting recordings below.
This High-Level Conference took place online on 10 December 2020.
Members of the Board Strategic Planning Committee (BSPC) and invited panelists discussed different important issues related to the new Global Strategy 2021-2026 while addressing what the strategy can mean for their topic of focus.
The session was facilitated by John Ramsay, many times the facilitator of FSC General Assemblies. It was introduced by Al Thorne and Zandra Martinez, Board of Directors and BSPC members discussing what they see as the main new elements in the strategy and how they expect it will change FSC.
Chris Elliott, Executive Director of the Climate and Land Use Alliance (CLUA) and member of the External Advisory Group for the Global Strategy, reflected on how the new strategy compares to where FSC came from over 25 years ago.
This was followed by three thematic sessions, cross-referencing the discussion with elements of the 3 strategies, goals and intended outcomes:
Leveraging the role of FSC as a facilitator of co–created forest-based innovative solutions for Climate Change:
Pina Gervassi, FSC International Climate Change Director and Walter Vergara Senior Fellow at World Resources Institute (WRI)
Demonstrating the value and impacts of FSC through unleashing the power of data:
Michael Marus, FSC International’s Global Chief Information Officer and Director of IT and Enrica Porcari, Chief Information Officer and Director of Technology of the World Food Programme (WFP) and member of the External Advisory Group for the Global Strategy
Scaling up benefits for smallholders and Indigenous Peoples:
Vera Santos, FSC International New Approaches Project Manager and Francisco Souza, FSC Indigenous Foundation Managing Director.
To close this session and pave the way forward, Kim Carstensen, FSC International Director General, reflected on the discussions, perspectives, and opportunities to continue building the path for the years to come, together.
FSC is updating the Lists of FSC Highly Hazardous Pesticides based on the existing criteria, indicators, thresholds and sources through an accelerated revision process as described in FSC-PRO-01-001 The Development and Revision of FSC Requirements.
FSC is extending a call for applications until 14 April 2020. We are still seeking candidates for a technical working group to develop a risk-based approaches (RBA) assurance system for forest management certification. They will also finalize the revision of the RBA procedure and guideline.
We are seeking FSC chamber members and technical experts with knowledge and experience in forest management and controlled wood for the working group tasked with revising the FSC Controlled Wood Standard for Forest Management Enterprises. The call for applications will be open from 17 December 2019 to 17 January 2020.
FSC digital audit reports for forest management are now ready for auditors around the globe to start training on the use of them. Use of the system will become mandatory for all forest management audits conducted from January 2021 onwards.
The first draft of the standard FSC-STD-60-004a FSC International Generic Indicators for the use of Highly Hazardous Pesticides is now available for public consultation until 01 April 2020 and can be accessed here. We invite all stakeholders to provide feedback.
In 2020, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) commissioned SmartCert, an independent assessor, to assess allegations made by Mighty Earth against the activities of Olam Palm Gabon – a joint venture of Olam Group and the government of Gabon.
There is so much happening at FSC around innovations. We are exploring wood identification technologies to improve traceability, building a new tool to screen bad actors before they enter the FSC system, developing a blockchain-based system to track real time transactions of FSC-certified materials, and many others.
FSC is seeking candidates for a technical working group to develop a risk-based approaches (RBA) assurance system for forest management certification, and to finalize the revision of the RBA procedure and guideline. The call for applications is open from 13 March to 31 March 2020.
Growing concerns over illegal salvage logging in the Russian Federation prompted FSC Russia to launch a study to assess the risks of illegal timber – especially timber obtained illegally through salvage logging – entering FSC supply chains.
The objective of this document is to specify the requirements for FSC-accredited certification bodies for developing Interim National Standard (INS) or Interim Regional Standard (IRS), depending on the geographic scope of the standard, for the certification of responsible forest management and the responsible management of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) at the Management Unit (MU) level. These standards shall be based on the International Generic Indicators (IGI) and shall address the regional, national or sub-national conditions in which they are to be used and shall consider input from local stakeholders. The FSC Board of Directors at FSC International, acting through the Policy Steering Group (PSG) shall approve Interim National Standards (INS) before they can be used for FSC certification purposes. In March 2020 the revised procedure was published to reflect the FSC Board of Directors’ decision during their 82nd meeting to delegate the approval of INS to the Policy Steering Group.
Completed NRA for Chile.This document is an assessment of the risk of sourcing material from unacceptable sources in a given country, developed according to FSC-PRO-60-002 V3-0 EN The Development and Approval of FSC National Risk Assessments.This risk assessment shall be used when implementing FSC-STD-40-005 V3-1 EN Requirements for Sourcing FSC Controlled Wood.Please Note: Certificate holders have until 04 September 2020 to adapt their due diligence system to include the changes brought about by FSC-NRA-CL V1-0. The CNRA will remain available for download until that date. ++ Click here to submit a change request for this FSC risk assessment ++