FSC US National Forest Stewardship Standard (NFSS)
Phase 2 Public Consultation
Introduction
The Forest Stewardship Council U.S. is pleased to present the final pieces of our Draft 1 FSC US National Forest Stewardship Standard (NFSS Version 2) and request your feedback on their contents. These draft materials represent a consensus between social, economic, and environmental interests for:
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Family Forest Indicators for small and low intensively managed forests.
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Plantation Indicators for management units that include plantations.
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Federal Lands Supplementary Requirements for management units that are managed by Federal agencies.
The 60-day public consultation ended on Monday, June 14, 2021.
Following below is information to help stakeholders review the revised standard materials, understand key issues being addressed, and provide comments as part of this public consultation. Please note that the Draft 1 base indicators are out of scope for this 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. These draft materials for the revised National Forest Stewardship Standard offer further refinement of the strong existing standard for the United States, and alignment 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. 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.
Family Forests, Plantations & Federal Lands
With this public consultation, the Standard Development Group is delivering the second set of outputs from FSC’s efforts to revise its 2010 US Forest Management Standard.
We assume you may be only interested in one of the topics addressed in this consultation, and are structuring this website accordingly.
Whatever your interest, please begin by reviewing the Consultation Overview. This document includes a message from the Standard Development Group, a summary of the revision process, key changes, a list of people involved, and what to expect following this public consultation.
For each of the three topics, the consultation begins with broad overview questions, along with targeted questions on issues for which the Standard Development Group is specifically looking for feedback. The consultation also provides an opportunity to share indicator- or supplementary requirement-specific comments.
You are not required to respond to all questions; if your time is limited, we encourage you to prioritize those topics and questions where you believe your knowledge and experience best positions you to assist the Standard Development Group.
Regardless of the time that you are able to dedicate to this consultation, we greatly appreciate your input. Our goal is to deliver a standard that is both best-in-class and achievable. To help accomplish this goal, we need clear, actionable input from an informed and diverse set of stakeholders during this consultation. Your participation makes this possible. Thank you!
US NFSS: Family Forest Indicators
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Review the overview of key changes to the Family Forest Indicators.
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Review the changes to the Family Forest Indicators in the National Forest Stewardship Standard:
3. Submit your comments via the FSC Consultation Platform: https://consultation-platform.fsc.org/en/consultations/take/cac8774eef3322
US NFSS: Plantation Indicators
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Review the overview of key changes to the Plantation Indicators.
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Review the changes to the Plantation Indicators in the National Forest Stewardship Standard:
3. Submit your comments via the FSC Consultation Platform: https://consultation-platform.fsc.org/en/consultations/take/cb0a340a74c10
US NFSS: Federal Lands Supplementary Requirements
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Review the overview of key changes to the Federal Lands Supplementary Requirements.
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Review the changes to the Federal Lands Supplementary Requirements in the National Forest Stewardship Standard:
3. Submit your comments via the FSC Consultation Platform: https://consultation-platform.fsc.org/en/consultations/take/c6f5ee01c3d28
Additional Resources
To assist your review, we have also developed a set of cross-walks to show if and how indicators and supplementary requirements from the existing standard have been incorporated into the revision.
As there are consultation questions requesting general feedback on the appropriateness of the Phase 1 annexes for the above topics, we are sharing these annexes for reference, so you don’t need to return to the Phase 1 consultation page.
Webinars
To support stakeholders and promote informed, actionable input, FSC US hosted three webinars. The following links lead to recordings of these webinars:
Webinar 1: April 27 – Family Forest Indicators
Deadline
The 60-day public consultation ends on Monday, June 14, 2021.
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.