FSC US National Forest Stewardship Standard
Phase 1 Public Consultation
Introduction
The Forest Stewardship Council U.S. was pleased to present the first draft of its revised version of the FSC US National Forest Stewardship Standard (Draft V2-1.0-2020) for public consultation. When final and approved, this Standard will be the second version of our existing FSC US Forest Management Standard.
The 75-day public consultation ended on Friday, December 18, 2020 at 4:59PM Central Time.
Following below is information to help stakeholders review the revised standard, understand key issues being addressed, and provide comments as part of this public consultation.
The Forest Stewardship Council is widely recognized as the world’s most trusted certification system due in large part to the quality and rigor of its forest management standards. This draft of the revised National Forest Stewardship Standard offers further refinement of the strong existing standard for the United States, aligning it with the FSC Principles and Criteria Version 5 and the International Generic Indicators.
Our goal is to deliver a standard that is best-in-class and achievable by streamlining the existing standard and addressing a small number of priority issues, identified below. To achieve this goal, we need clear, actionable input from an informed and diverse set of stakeholders.
The purpose of this website is to provide the information needed to participate in the public consultation.
National Forest Stewardship Standard for Review
This draft of the National Forest Stewardship Standard represents an extraordinary level of dedication and effort by a technical Working Group and by the FSC US Board of Directors, who serve as the Standard Development Group.
Working Group members brought extensive technical expertise and operational knowledge representing a broad range of US regions and stakeholders. Throughout, they worked hard to ensure the indicators they recommended were focused and streamlined, clear in intent, and the Standard would be applied consistently across the United States.
The Standard Development Group’s efforts reflect the experience and knowledge of the individuals who comprise our Board of Directors, as well as the values and issues important to their respective membership chambers (Environmental, Social, Economic). The Standard Development Group paid particular attention to the objectives of maintaining and enhancing the integrity and credibility of the standard, promoting clear and substantive on-the-ground impacts, and accessibility and feasibility for current and new certificate holders.
Please begin your review with the Consultation Overview. This document includes a message from the Standard Development Group, a summary of the revision process, a list of people involved, key changes in the standard, and what to expect following this public consultation.
We offer two versions of the revised Standard to support this public consultation:
To assist your review, we have also developed a set of cross-walks to show if and how indicators from the existing standard have been incorporated into the revision.
The Guide to the Consultation Platform” (linked below) also provides some suggestions for how to use your time efficiently.
Issue Overviews
At the start of the revision process, the Standard Development Group identified a set of priority issues to be addressed. The following issue overviews are designed to support stakeholder engagement in the public consultation by describing the issues concisely, identifying the relevant parts of the standard, and offering key questions to address when providing comments.
Webinars
To support stakeholders and promote informed, actionable input, FSC US hosted three webinars. The following links lead to recordings of these webinars:
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Webinar 1: October 22 – Regional Requirements, Climate Change & Exploitative Harvesting Practice
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Webinar 2: October 27 – Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) & Workers
Deadline
The 75-day public consultation ended on Friday, December 18, 2020 at 4:59PM Central Time.
Questions?
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If you have questions about the public consultation, please contact FM.Revision@us.fsc.org
Background information about the revision process, and how it will proceed after this consultation, is available at the FSC US Forest Management Standard Revision 2018-2022 webpage.