Policy Motion 43, FSC General Assembly 2008
The FSC membership passed a motion with overwhelming majority at the FSC General Assembly in November 2008 calling for “FSC Engagement in Forest-based Carbon”. The motion mandates FSC, amongst others, to explore the role that the FSC Principles & Criteria, governance, accreditation, policy development and forest certification can play in frameworks to mitigate climate change by maintaining and/or increasing carbon stocks:
Policy Motion #43
“FSC acknowledges that well-managed forests can play an important role in addressing climate change by reducing or preventing greenhouse gas emissions and/or increasing carbon sequestration. FSC shall explore the role the FSC system and FSC certified forests can play in frameworks to mitigate climate change. This may include:
Participating in efforts focused on establishing real and verifiable emission reductions from improved forest management projects, and investigation into how FSC certified management practices affect net change in carbon stocks;
Exploring the role of FSC Principles and Criteria and FSC-certification in climate change mitigation strategies under UNFCCC negotiations, including those aimed at reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD);
Exploring alignment or partnership with voluntary carbon standards or program design protocols;
Engaging voluntary and regulatory carbon markets to recognize FSC-certification as a tool to ensure the quality of forest carbon – including the environmental and social co-benefits FSC certification provides; and,
Exploring options for facilitation / development of guidelines and cost models to help FSC certificate holders, including Family Forests, access revenue sources from carbon management.
Exploring the capacity of the FSC Chain of Custody system to facilitate determination of product-level carbon effect (e.g. carbon footprint) – including net carbon sequestration/emission from management, processing, and transport of harvested wood products.”
