FSC’s mission is to promote the environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial and economically viable management of the world’s forests. It is increasingly recognized that association between FSC and organizations that are involved in unacceptable forest-related activities is harmful to FSC’s reputation and ultimately to its ability to deliver on its mission.
In order to address this concern, in July 2009 FSC first introduced a policy establishing the criteria for the association of third parties with FSC, called “Policy for the Association of Organizations with FSC” (FSC-POL-01-004).
Through this policy FSC expects to identify organizations not committed to the basic fundamentals of responsible forest management and prevent them from misusing their association with FSC, also ensuring the protection of the FSC´s brand integrity.
This policy applies for the relationship of FSC with FSC members and other organizations which have the following contractual relationship with FSC:
• FSC accreditation agreement
• FSC license agreement
• FSC cooperation agreement
• FSC partnership agreement
Revised version of the Policy for Association:
In September 2011, a revised version of the FSC Policy for Association was approved. The main amendments in relation to the previous version of the policy are:
• A list of “Terms and Definitions” is included in order to clarify the interpretation of terms used in the policy. One of the key elements which is clarified in this version is the definition of “involvement”. This definition aims to clarify that the Policy for Association only covers situations in which the organization or individual is firsthand responsible for the unacceptable activities (direct involvement) or is involved as a parent or sister company, subsidiary, shareholder or Board of Directors with a minimum ownership or voting power of 51% to an organization directly involved in unacceptable activities (indirect involvement). It also includes situations in which the organization or individual hires a subcontractor to perform unacceptable activities on its behalf. It means that the Policy for Association does not cover other unacceptable activities performed by suppliers and other parties where the organization is not directly or indirectly involved.
• Another important element which is clarified is the “significant conversion” of forests, which is now defined as Significant conversion: Conversion is considered significant in any case of:
- Conversion of High Conservation Value Forests
- Conversion of more than 10% of the forest areas under the organization's responsibility in the past 5 years
- Conversion of more than 10,000 ha of forests under the organization's responsibility in the past 5 years
• The new policy also contains a new section (Part II) which includes requirements to be applied by FSC, including the implementation of a due diligence system before entering in association with other organizations, investigation of allegations and the mechanisms for disassociation.
FSC is currently preparing a Questions & Answers document in order to clarify the questions concerning the implementation of the Policy for Association, which will be published soon.
