FSC's updated Policy for Association ensures integrity in the FSC system

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For more than 25 years, FSC has worked to improve forestry throughout the world. FSC's Policy for Association acts as a risk management tool that protects the credibility and reputation of FSC and the organizations associated with it. 

Therefore, all FSC-certified companies must sign FSC's Policy for Association (PfA) when entering the FSC system. The PfA defines six unacceptable activities that companies, and organizations must avoid in both their certified and non-certified operations:       

  • Illegal logging or illegal trade in forest products    
  • Violation of customary rights and human rights    
  • Violation of labor rights     
  • Destruction of high conservation values ​​in forests    
  • Conversion of natural forest cover    
  • Use of genetically modified organisms in forests

New updates to the Policy for Association

On January 1 2023, an updated version of FSC's Policy for Association will come into effect, which will enable FSC to detect unacceptable behavior even earlier through a new screening process and thus better protect FSC's integrity.  In version 3, FSC introduces the following changes:       

FSC is introducing the following changes through the Policy for Association V3: 

  • The scope of unacceptable activities, which focuses on forestry operations in the previous version (V2), has been widened to include forest product sectors.  
  • A corporate group will now be defined as the totality of entities to which an associated organization is connected by “control”. The definition of control includes but is not limited to ownership. The concept of control adopted by FSC is aligned with the Accountability Framework Initiative’s (AFi) definition.  
  • The unacceptable activity of conversion of natural forests has been aligned with FSC’s approach on addressing forest conversion. 
  • New information disclosure requirements and a screening process will be introduced through the Procedure for Disclosure for new organizations joining FSC, which will become effective in the latter part of 2023.

Beginning January 1, 2023, FSC will use the Policy for Association V3 to determine if an organization or a member of its corporate group has engaged in an unacceptable activity after the effective date. For unacceptable activities that occur prior to January 1, 2023, FSC will use the Policy for Association V2 to assess the case. This will apply to organizations that are already associated, as well as to those that join the FSC system after the effective date.  

Resources

Violation of the Policy for Association may lead to the termination of all contractual agreements between the corporate group and FSC – a process known as disassociation. For more information about the how FSC processes Policy for Association violation cases and the consequences of disassociation, please click here.  

  • The Policy for Association V3 is available here.  
  • The Procedure for Disclosure is available here
  • For more details about the changes in the Policy for Association V3, please refer to this booklet and FAQs.  
  • To read about the revision process carried out by FSC, which has resulted in the Policy for Association V3, click here.


Source: FSC Canada