FSC Principles and Criteria

The Organization shall comply with all applicable laws, regulations and nationally-ratified international treaties, conventions and agreements.

1.1 The Organization shall be a legally defined entity with clear, documented and unchallenged legal registration, with written authorization from the legally competent authority for specific activities.

1.2 The Organization shall demonstrate that the legal status of the Management Unit, including tenure and use rights, and its boundaries, are clearly defined.

1.3 The Organization shall have legal rights to operate in the Management Unit, which fit the legal status of The Organization and of the Management Unit, and shall comply with the associated legal obligations in applicable national and local laws and regulations and administrative requirements. The legal rights shall provide for harvest of products and/or supply of ecosystem services from within the Management Unit. The Organization shall pay the legally prescribed charges associated with such rights and obligations.

1.4 The Organization shall develop and implement measures, and/or shall engage with regulatory agencies, to systematically protect the Management Unit from unauthorized or illegal resource use, settlement and other illegal activities.

1.5 The Organization shall comply with the applicable national laws, local laws, ratified international conventions and obligatory codes of practice, relating to the transportation and trade of forest products within and from the Management Unit, and/or up to the point of first sale.

1.6 The Organization shall identify, prevent and resolve disputes over issues of statutory or customary law, which can be settled out of court in a timely manner, through engagement with affected stakeholders.

1.7 The Organization shall publicize a commitment not to offer or receive bribes in money or any other form of corruption, and shall comply with anti-corruption legislation where this exists. In the absence of anti-corruption legislation, The Organization shall implement other anti-corruption measures proportionate to the scale and intensity of management activities and the risk of corruption.

1.8 The Organization shall demonstrate a long-term commitment to adhere to the FSC Principles and Criteria in the Management Unit, and to related FSC Policies and Standards. A statement of this commitment shall be contained in a publicly available document made freely available.

The Organization shall maintain or enhance the social and economic well-being of workers. 

2.1 The Organization shall uphold the principles and rights at work as defined in the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work (1998) based on the eight ILO Core Labour Conventions.

2.2 The Organization shall promote gender equality in employment practices, training opportunities, awarding of contracts, processes of engagement and management activities.

2.3 The Organization shall implement health and safety practices to protect workers from occupational safety and health hazards. These practices shall, proportionate to scale, intensity and risk of management activities, meet or exceed the recommendations of the ILO Code of Practice on Safety and Health in Forestry Work.

2.4 The Organization shall pay wages that meet or exceed minimum forest industry standards or other recognized forest industry wage agreements or living wages, where these are higher than the legal minimum wages. When none of these exist, The Organization shall through engagement with workers develop mechanisms for determining living wages.

2.5 The Organization shall demonstrate that workers have job-specific training and supervision to safely and effectively implement the management plan and all management activities.

2.6 The Organization through engagement with workers shall have mechanisms for resolving grievances and for providing fair compensation to workers for loss or damage to property, occupational diseases, or occupational injuries sustained while working for The Organization.

The Organization shall identify and uphold indigenous peoples’ legal and customary rights of ownership, use and management of land, territories and resources affected by management activities.

3.1 The Organization shall identify the Indigenous Peoples that exist within the Management Unit or are affected by management activities. The Organization shall then, through engagement with these Indigenous Peoples, identify their rights of tenure, their rights of access to and use of forest resources and ecosystem services, their customary rights and legal rights and obligations, that apply within the Management Unit. The Organization shall also identify areas where these rights are contested.

3.2 The Organization shall recognize and uphold the legal and customary rights of Indigenous Peoples to maintain control over management activities within or related to the Management Unit to the extent necessary to protect their rights, resources and lands and territories. Delegation by Indigenous Peoples of control over management activities to third parties requires Free, Prior and Informed Consent.

3.3 In the event of delegation of control over management activities, a binding agreement between The Organization and the Indigenous Peoples shall be concluded through Free, Prior and Informed Consent. The agreement shall define its duration, provisions for renegotiation, renewal, termination, economic conditions and other terms and conditions. The agreement shall make provision for monitoring by Indigenous Peoples of The Organization’s compliance with its terms and conditions.

3.4 The Organization shall recognize and uphold the rights, customs and culture of Indigenous Peoples as defined in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007) and ILO Convention 169 (1989).

3.5 The Organization, through engagement with Indigenous Peoples, shall identify sites which are of special cultural, ecological, economic, religious or spiritual significance and for which these Indigenous Peoples hold legal or customary rights. These sites shall be recognized by The Organization and their management, and/or protection shall be agreed through engagement with these Indigenous Peoples.

3.6 The Organization shall uphold the right of Indigenous Peoples to protect and utilize their traditional knowledge and shall compensate Indigenous Peoples for the utilization of such knowledge and their intellectual property. A binding agreement as per Criterion 3.3 shall be concluded between The Organization and the Indigenous Peoples for such utilization through Free, Prior and Informed Consent before utilization takes place and shall be consistent with the protection of intellectual property rights.

The Organization shall contribute to maintaining or enhancing the social and economic well-being of local communities. 

4.1 The Organization shall identify the local communities that exist within the Management Unit and those that are affected by management activities. The Organization shall then, through engagement with these local communities, identify their rights of tenure, their rights of access to and use of forest resources and ecosystem services, their customary rights and legal rights and obligations, that apply within the Management Unit.

4.2 The Organization shall recognize and uphold the legal and customary rights of local communities to maintain control over management activities within or related to the Management Unit to the extent necessary to protect their rights, resources, lands and territories. Delegation by local communities of control over management activities to third parties requires Free, Prior and Informed Consent.

4.3 The Organization shall provide reasonable opportunities for employment, training and other services to local communities, contractors and suppliers proportionate to scale and intensity of its management activities.

4.4 The Organization shall implement additional activities, through engagement with local communities, that contribute to their social and economic development, proportionate to the scale, intensity and socio-economic impact of its management activities.

4.5 The Organization, through engagement with local communities, shall take action to identify, avoid and mitigate significant negative social, environmental and economic impacts of its management activities on affected communities. The action taken shall be proportionate to the scale, intensity and risk of those activities and negative impacts.

4.6 The Organization, through engagement with local communities, shall have mechanisms for resolving grievances and providing fair compensation to local communities and individuals with regard to the impacts of management activities of The Organization.

4.7 The Organization, through engagement with local communities, shall identify sites which are of special cultural, ecological, economic, religious or spiritual significance, and for which these local communities hold legal or customary rights. These sites shall be recognized by The Organization, and their management and/or protection shall be agreed through engagement with these local communities.

4.8 The Organization shall uphold the right of local communities to protect and utilize their traditional knowledge and shall compensate local communities for the utilization of such knowledge and their intellectual property. A binding agreement as per Criterion 3.3 shall be concluded between The Organization and the local communities for such utilization through Free, Prior and Informed Consent before utilization takes place, and shall be consistent with the protection of intellectual property rights.

The Organization shall efficiently manage the range of multiple products and services of the Management Unit to maintain or enhance long term economic viability and the range of environmental and social benefits. 

5.1 The Organization shall identify, produce, or enable the production of, diversified benefits and/or products, based on the range of resources and ecosystem services existing in the Management Unit in order to strengthen and diversify the local economy proportionate to the scale and intensity of management activities.

5.2 The Organization shall normally harvest products and services from the Management Unit at or below a level which can be permanently sustained.

5.3 The Organization shall demonstrate that the positive and negative externalities of operation are included in the management plan.

5.4 The Organization shall use local processing, local services, and local value adding to meet the requirements of The Organization where these are available, proportionate to scale, intensity and risk. If these are not locally available, The Organization shall make reasonable attempts to help establish these services.

5.5 The Organization shall demonstrate through its planning and expenditures proportionate to scale, intensity and risk, its commitment to long-term economic viability.

The Organization shall maintain, conserve and/or restore ecosystem services and environmental values of the Management Unit, and shall avoid, repair or mitigate negative environmental impacts. 

6.1 The Organization shall assess environmental values in the Management Unit and those values outside the Management Unit potentially affected by management activities. This assessment shall be undertaken with a level of detail, scale and frequency that is proportionate to the scale, intensity and risk of management activities, and is sufficient for the purpose of deciding the necessary conservation measures, and for detecting and monitoring possible negative impacts of those activities.

6.2 Prior to the start of site-disturbing activities, The Organization shall identify and assess the scale, intensity and risk of potential impacts of management activities on the identified environmental values.

6.3 The Organization shall identify and implement effective actions to prevent negative impacts of management activities on the environmental values, and to mitigate and repair those that occur, proportionate to the scale, intensity and risk of these impacts.

6.4 The Organization shall protect rare species and threatened species and their habitats in the Management Unit through conservation zones, protection areas, connectivity and/or (where necessary) other direct measures for their survival and viability. These measures shall be proportionate to the scale, intensity and risk of management activities and to the conservation status and ecological requirements of the rare and threatened species. The Organization shall take into account the geographic range and ecological requirements of rare and threatened species beyond the boundary of the Management Unit, when determining the measures to be taken inside the Management Unit.

6.5 The Organization shall identify and protect representative sample areas of native ecosystems and/ or restore them to more natural conditions. Where representative sample areas do not exist or are insufficient, The Organization shall restore a proportion of the Management Unit to more natural conditions. The size of the areas and the measures taken for their protection or restoration, including within plantations, shall be proportionate to the conservation status and value of the ecosystems at the landscape level, and the scale, intensity and risk of management activities.

6.6 The Organization shall effectively maintain the continued existence of naturally occurring native species and genotypes, and prevent losses of biological diversity, especially through habitat management in the Management Unit. The Organization shall demonstrate that effective measures are in place to manage and control hunting, fishing, trapping and collecting.

6.7 The Organization shall protect or restore natural water courses, water bodies, riparian zones and their connectivity. The Organization shall avoid negative impacts on water quality and quantity and mitigate and remedy those that occur.

6.8 The Organization shall manage the landscape in the Management Unit to maintain and/or restore a varying mosaic of species, sizes, ages, spatial scales and regeneration cycles appropriate for the landscape values in that region, and for enhancing environmental and economic resilience.

6.9 The Organization shall not convert natural forest to plantations, nor natural forests or plantations on sites directly converted from natural forest to non-forest land use, except when the conversion: a) affects a very limited portion of the area of the Management Unit, and b) will produce clear, substantial, additional, secure long-term conservation benefits in the Management Unit, and c) does not damage or threaten High Conservation Values*, nor any sites or resources necessary to maintain or enhance those High Conservation Values.

6.10 Management Units containing plantations that were established on areas converted from natural forest after November 1994 shall not qualify for certification, except where: a) clear and sufficient evidence is provided that The Organization was not directly or indirectly responsible for the conversion, or b) the conversion affected a very limited portion of the area of the Management Unit and is producing clear, substantial, additional, secure long term conservation benefits in the Management Unit.

The Organization shall have a management plan consistent with its policies and objectives and proportionate to scale, intensity and risks of its management activities. The management plan shall be implemented and kept up to date based on monitoring information in order to promote adaptive management. The associated planning and procedural documentation shall be sufficient to guide staff, inform affected stakeholders and interested stakeholders and to justify management decisions. 

7.1 The Organization shall, proportionate to scale, intensity and risk of its management activities, set policies (visions and values) and objectives for management, which are environmentally sound, socially beneficial and economically viable. Summaries of these policies and objectives shall be incorporated into the management plan, and publicized.

7.2 The Organization shall have and implement a management plan for the Management Unit which is fully consistent with the policies and objectives as established according to Criterion 7.1. The management plan shall describe the natural resources that exist in the Management Unit and explain how the plan will meet the FSC certification requirements. The management plan shall cover forest management planning and social management planning proportionate to scale, intensity and risk of the planned activities.

7.3 The management plan shall include verifiable targets by which progress towards each of the prescribed management objectives can be assessed.

7.4 The Organization shall update and revise periodically the management planning and procedural documentation to incorporate the results of monitoring and evaluation, stakeholder engagement or new scientific and technical information, as well as to respond to changing environmental, social and economic circumstances.

7.5 The Organization shall make publicly available a summary of the management plan free of charge. Excluding confidential information, other relevant components of the management plan shall be made available to affected stakeholders on request, and at cost of reproduction and handling.

7.6 The Organization shall, proportionate to scale, intensity and risk of management activities, proactively and transparently engage affected stakeholders in its management planning and monitoring processes, and shall engage interested stakeholders on request.

The Organization shall demonstrate that progress towards achieving the management objectives, the impacts of management activities and the condition of the Management Unit, are monitored and evaluated proportionate to the scale, intensity and risk of management activities, in order to implement adaptive management. 

8.1 The Organization shall monitor the implementation of its management plan, including its policies and objectives, its progress with the activities planned, and the achievement of its verifiable targets.

8.2 The Organization shall monitor and evaluate the environmental and social impacts of the activities carried out in the Management Unit, and changes in its environmental condition.

8.3 The Organization shall analyze the results of monitoring and evaluation and feed the outcomes of this analysis back into the planning process.

8.4 The Organization shall make publicly available a summary of the results of monitoring free of charge, excluding confidential information.

8.5 The Organization shall have and implement a tracking and tracing system proportionate to scale, intensity and risk of its management activities, for demonstrating the source and volume in proportion to projected output for each year, of all products from the Management Unit that are marketed as FSC certified.

The Organization shall maintain and/or enhance the high conservation values in the Management Unit through applying the precautionary approach. 

9.1 The Organization, through engagement with affected stakeholders, interested stakeholders and other means and sources, shall assess and record the presence and status of the following High Conservation Values in the Management Unit, proportionate to the scale, intensity and risk of impacts of management activities, and likelihood of the occurrence of the High Conservation Values:

• HCV 1 - Species diversity. Concentrations of biological diversity including endemic species, and rare, threatened or endangered species, that are significant at global, regional or national levels.
• HCV 2 - Landscape-level ecosystems and mosaics. Intact forest landscapes and large landscape-level ecosystems and ecosystem mosaics that are significant at global, regional or national levels, and that contain viable populations of the great majority of the naturally occurring species in natural patterns of distribution and abundance.
• HCV 3 - Ecosystems and habitats. Rare, threatened, or endangered ecosystems, habitats or refugia.
• HCV 4 - Critical ecosystem services. Basic ecosystem services in critical situations, including protection of water catchments and control of erosion of vulnerable soils and slopes.
• HCV 5 - Community needs. Sites and resources fundamental for satisfying the basic necessities of local communities or Indigenous Peoples (for livelihoods, health, nutrition, water, etc.), identified through engagement with these communities or Indigenous Peoples.
• HCV 6 - Cultural values. Sites, resources, habitats and landscapes of global or national cultural, archaeological or historical significance, and/or of critical cultural, ecological, economic or religious/sacred importance for the traditional cultures of local communities or Indigenous Peoples, identified through engagement with these local communities or Indigenous Peoples

9.2 The Organization shall develop effective strategies that maintain and/or enhance the identified High Conservation Values, through engagement with affected stakeholders, interested stakeholders and experts.

9.3 The Organization shall implement strategies and actions that maintain and/or enhance the identified High Conservation Values. These strategies and actions shall implement the precautionary approach and be proportionate to the scale, intensity and risk of management activities.

9.4 The Organization shall demonstrate that periodic monitoring is carried out to assess changes in the status of High Conservation Values, and shall adapt its management strategies to ensure their effective protection. The monitoring shall be proportionate to the scale, intensity and risk of management activities, and shall include engagement with affected stakeholders, interested stakeholders and experts.

Management activities conducted by or for the Organization for the Management Unit shall be selected and implemented consistent with the Organization’s economic, environmental and social policies and objectives, and in compliance with the Principles and Criteria collectively. 

10.1 After harvest or in accordance with the management plan, The Organization shall, by natural or artificial regeneration methods, regenerate vegetation cover in a timely fashion to pre-harvesting or more natural conditions.

10.2 The Organization shall use species for regeneration that are ecologically well adapted to the site and to the management objectives. The Organization shall use native species and local genotypes for regeneration, unless there is clear and convincing justification for using others.

10.3 The Organization shall only use alien species when knowledge and/or experience have shown that any invasive impacts can be controlled and effective mitigation measures are in place.

10.4 The Organization shall not use genetically modified organisms in the Management Unit.

10.5 The Organization shall use silvicultural practices that are ecologically appropriate for the vegetation, species, sites and management objectives.

10.6 The Organization shall minimize or avoid the use of fertilizers. When fertilizers are used, The Organization shall demonstrate that the use is equally or more ecologically and economically beneficial than the use of silvicultural systems that do not require fertilizers, and prevent, mitigate, and/ or repair damage to environmental values, including soils.

10.7 The Organization shall use integrated pest management and silviculture systems which avoid, or aim at eliminating, the use of chemical pesticides. The Organization shall not use any chemical pesticides prohibited by FSC policy. When pesticides are used, The Organization shall prevent, mitigate, and / or repair damage to environmental values and human health.

10.8 The Organization shall minimize, monitor and strictly control the use of biological control agents in accordance with internationally accepted scientific protocols. When biological control agents are used, The Organization shall prevent, mitigate, and/or repair damage to environmental values.

10.9 The Organization shall assess risks and implement activities that reduce potential negative impacts from natural hazards proportionate to scale, intensity, and risk.

10.10 The Organization shall manage infrastructural development, transport activities and silviculture so that water resources and soils are protected, and disturbance of and damage to rare and threatened species, habitats, ecosystems and landscape values are prevented, mitigated and/or repaired.

10.11 The Organization shall manage activities associated with harvesting and extraction of timber and non-timber forest products so that environmental values are conserved, merchantable waste is reduced, and damage to other products and services is avoided.

10.12 The Organization shall dispose of waste materials in an environmentally appropriate manner.