Background

Should a company be allowed to market their FSC certified timber and enjoy the benefits of using FSC’s good name and trademark to promote their activities and products, while some part of their operations continue to violate the very fundamentals FSC stands for?

Recognizing that some companies may need time to change their forestry practices on all sites, the question remains how to prevent “greenwashing”. This issue is also known in FSC as “partial certification”.

FSC has always taken these issues very seriously and has attempted to resolve them through different policies related to forest management certification. In March 2007, FSC IC was mandated to follow a new and broader approach: the development of criteria for the association of any third party with FSC, accompanied with an informed review of companies who appear to be misusing the system.

The intent is to protect the credibility and integrity of the FSC system as a whole and create a mechanism to protect the investment that FSC represents in time, money, effort and goodwill made by certificate holders and stakeholders around the world.


Objectives

The objective of this policy is to ensure consistency and transparency in decision-making on the association of a given third party with FSC's good name and trademarks. The policy is designed to ensure that it does not create an impediment to participation by companies engaged in credible efforts to improve their practices.

Policy elements approved by FSC Board of Directors

Taking into account the feedback received through the consultation on the final draft of the Policy and at the same time recognizing the importance of the Policy on Association for FSC’s credibility, the FSC Board of Directors at its 51st meeting decided to approve Part I of the final draft, which contains the actual policy elements.

FSC-POL-01-004 V2-0 Policy for Association with FSC

Further process

The FSC Board of Directors also decided that the Policy and Standards Committee will further work to define the mechanisms necessary to ensure the adequate implementation of the policy.

Document under public consultation

Currently no documents are under consultation.