1. Contact a certification body in your area

You can find a list of FSC accredited certification bodies at http://www.accreditation-services.com/archives/standards/fsc  Contact one or several FSC accredited certification bodies working in your area to give you a first estimate of cost and time needed for certification.  The certification body will need some basic information about your operation. They will provide you with information about the requirements of certification.  You will need to sign an agreement with the certification body with which you decide to work.

2. Management planning

You may need to create or make changes to your management plan in order to comply with FSC standards.  Most forest operations already have management plans that include the appropriate level of harvest to ensure that harvest can occur on a regular basis without loss in yield.  Some management plans also have an environmental impact management component (e.g. to protect waterways or minimize the run-off from forest roads).  In any case, your management plan must cover all of the requirements described in the FSC standard.

3. Certification assessment

The certification body will do a certification assessment to see if your operation qualifies for FSC certification.  It will then prepare a report and make a decision as to whether your operation gains certification or not.

4. Certification

If the certification body decides to certify you, you will receive an FSC certificate.  This will allow you to use the FSC logo on your products. If the audit reveals that your operation is not yet in full compliance with FSC standards, then you will be asked to change some aspects of your forest management within a certain period of time (these requested changes are called “corrective action requests”).

5. Annual audit

Most operations will be subjected to an annual audit. At this time the certification body will review documents and records related to the certificate.  For SLIMFs, the first annual audit will include an FMU site-level visit.  However, if there are no corrective action requests that require site visits, no complaints requiring evaluation, and no significant forest activities in the past 12 months, the remaining audits may not require site visits.  This is also true for groups or sub-groups of SLIMFs that have less than 100 members (taking into account the rate of change of group members, any changes in the group management structure, and the type and variety of forest activities).

+ Re-certification after 5 years

FSC certificates are valid for 5 years. At the end of the five-year period, if you decide to get recertified, you will have to undergo the same procedures as for the main evaluation.