Forest Stewardship Council

Jacaranda is proud to be a member of the USGBC.

Forest Stewardship Council

What is FSC?

FSC is a global, not-for-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of responsible forest management worldwide. They enable businesses and consumers to make informed choices about the forest products they buy and create positive change by engaging the power of market dynamics.

FSC facilitates the development of standards, ensures monitoring of certified operations, and protects the FSC trademark so consumers can choose products that come from well-managed forests.

FSC members include some of the world’s leading environmental NGOs (WWF and Greenpeace), businesses (Tetra Pak and Mondi PLC), and social organizations (the National Aboriginal Forestry Association of Canada), as well as forest owners and managers, processing companies and campaigners, and individuals. Jacaranda is a proud certified member of FSC.

Together these diverse voices define best practices for forestry that addresses social and environmental issues. The membership consensus sets the FSC Principles and Criteria – the highest standards of forest management which are environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial, and economically viable.

This diversity is FSC’s strength and to make sure no one viewpoint dominates the others, the membership has three chambers – environmental, social, and economic – that have equal rights in decision-making. Also, to ensure that we have globally fair representation, members represent either North or South sub-chambers.

FSC Principles & Criteria

The FSC Principles and Criteria were first published in 1994. They were amended in 1996, 1999, and 2001. A comprehensive review commenced in 2009, which resulted in significant revisions to the wording – although not the substance – of the Principles and Criteria being proposed in 2011. Voting on the new version closed in January 2012, with the latest version of the FSC Principles and Criteria (FSC-STD-01-001 V5-0 D5-0 EN) approved by 75% of the membership vote.

All ten principles and criteria must be applied in any forest management unit before it can receive FSC certification. The Principles & Criteria apply to all forest types and to all areas within the management unit included in the scope of the certificate.

The P&C are applicable worldwide and relevant to forest areas and different ecosystems, as well as cultural, political, and legal systems. This means that they are not specific to any particular country or region.

In order to help forest managers, stakeholders, and certification bodies interpret them for a specific region, we are developing a set of International Generic Indicators. These are being produced following the most recent revision of the Principles and Criteria in 2012 and are based on the extensive explanatory notes that were developed to support a discussion of the revised Principles and Criteria prior to their approval. For detailed information on the International Generic Indicators process, please visit the website.

In many countries, FSC working groups have developed FSC National Standards. These are based on the Principles and Criteria and provide locally appropriate indicators for each criterion to show compliance can be demonstrated in that national situation.