Group certification (pdf English)
Certificación de grupo (pdf)
La certification de groupe (pdf)
Group certification (pdf Nepali)
Certificação de grupo (pdf)
Groepscertificering (pdf)
Group certification (pdf Chinese)

FSC group certification allows a group of forest owners to join together under a single FSC certificate and share certification costs among the group members. This can dramatically reduce the cost for each forest owner. The number of group members is not limited, but the group has to be managed effectively and function according to FSC rules.

For groups of SLIMFs, FSC allows certification bodies to make some changes to the certification process in order to reduce the cost of certification. An important change is permitting a sample of landowners to be included in each annual audit, instead of requiring that all landowners be audited every year.

The Group manager is the entity that represents the landowners that constitute the group. The group manager applies for group certification and subsequently holds the forest management certificate. The group manager is responsible to the certification body for ensuring that the requirements of the FSC Principles and Criteria for Forest Stewardship are met by all landowners participating in the group.

Group members are the individual forest owners or forest managers participating in the group certificate. Their forests can be of any type of landownership (state land, private, communal, concession) and there is no limit to the number of group members in a group.  For groups of SLIMFs, all group members must be eligible for SLIMF designation so there are often size and intensity limits associated with inclusion in the group (size and intensity limits vary by country).

Key responsibilities in group certification

All group members need to be in total compliance in a group certificate.  Group members cannot ‘trade’ responsibilities for meeting requirements between different members or properties. However, some landscape level requirements, the requirements of the applicable FSC Standard that are implemented at the level of the group (e.g. protection of representative samples of ecosystems, protection of high conservation values), can be managed at the group level.  How this is achieved depends on the group context and organizational structure.