FSC PRESENTATION

FAO-GTZ-ITTO SEMINAR ON BUILDING CONFIDENCE AMONG
FOREST CERTIFICATION SCHEMES
AND THEIR SUPPORTERS

19-20 February 2001, at FAO, Rome, Italy

Liviu Amariei
FSC Regional Coordinator for Europe & Africa

E-mail: [email protected]
Tel/Fax. +52-951-62110 Ext.115
Tel: +52-951-46905
website: www.fscoax.org

 

 

Our Mission

The forest stewardship council shall promote environmentally appropriate,
socially beneficial, and economically viable management of the world's forests.

 

Objective of FSC

To promote the good management of the world forests through an
independent and voluntary certification program

 

COLLABORATION AGREEMENTS

    RELATING TO NATIONAL INITIATIVES AND STANDARDS

· Contact Person Agreements
· Working Group Agreements
· Endorsement of regional/national standards
· Agreements with non-endorsed National Initiatives
· Certification bodies' generic standards
· Other standards organizations

RELATING TO CERTIFICATION SYSTEMS

· Include evaluation, approval, continuous improvement, correction and monitoring of the systems used by accredited and applicant certification bodies

· Collaboration with other certification systems, like LEI, in form of joint certification assessments.

· De facto mutual recognition between accredited certification bodies

 

FSC POSITION

    The FSC will continue to show an open attitude towards collaboration with other
    certification schemes and mutual recognition aimed at serving our mission and the world's forests.

 

CREDIBILITY

    Any future engagement in collaboration agreements and mutual recognition has to preserve
    the credibility of forestry certification and have a comprehensive technical base

 

KEY ELEMENTS (1)

· STANDARDS

      Performance-based standards that must

      · Ensure forest management that is environmentally sound, socially beneficial and economically viable

      · Apply effectively to individual forest management units or well defined groups with appropriate level of commitment

      · Achieve credibility to a large range of involved stakeholder interest groups

 

KEY ELEMENTS (2)

· STANDARDS

      Performance-based standards that must

      · Achieve equal treatment and non-discriminatory market impact

      · Be developed by multistakehoder consultative process and demonstrate stakeholder support

      · Include provision for continuous development and improvement

      · Satisfy all requirements of each of the certification systems involved

 

KEY ELEMENTS (3)

· ACCREDITATION AND CERTIFICATION SYSTEM

· Independent, third party certification
· Certification bodies accredited by clear and recognized accreditation procedures
· An adequate level of monitoring
· Include dispute resolution systems at all appropriate levels
· Cost effective
· Equivalent requirements are satisfied by all certification bodies

 

MESSAGE TO THE PUBLIC

    Any collaboration or mutual recognition agreement must include
    provisions for avoiding confusion or misleading public statements

 

SUBSTANTIVE EQUIVALENCE

    The protocols of all parties should be satisfied, by agreement, to ensure the substantive equivalence of
    the processes, standards and results.

 

EXAMPLE

· Satisfies the protocols of FSC and the National Standards Organization

· Ensures substantive equivalence between the standards endorsed by the two bodies

     

    FSC POSITION ON COLLABORATION AND MUTUAL RECOGNITION

      Since its founding in 1993, the FSC has been active in terms of collaboration with other parties involved in forestry certification and FSC has achieved internationally a high level of credibility.

      The FSC will maintain an open attitude towards collaboration with other entities and certification systems, with the legitimate desire that certification maintain a high level of credibility to the public.