Dear Stakeholder:
FSC is an independent nonprofit organization that sets standards by which forests and companies are certified. FSC makes decisions on policy and standards through a three chamber (environmental, economic, social) consensus-based process. See www.fscus.org for additional detail on the Principles, Criteria, and the US Forest Management Standard.
The Board of Directors of the Forest Stewardship Council US (FSC US) has appointed a Federal Lands Certification Exploratory Committee to provide recommendations back to the Board regarding the future of FSC certification of US Forest Service (USFS) and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands.
You have been identified as an informed stakeholder whose consideration of issues related to forest management can help in the deliberations by the Exploratory Committee.
The chamber-balanced Committee includes the following members:
• Environmental Chamber: Alex Brown, BARK; Susan Jane Brown, Western Environmental Law Center; Fran Price, The Nature Conservancy
• Economic Chamber: Paul Harlan, Collins Pine; Fred Souba, New Page Forest Products
• Social Chamber: Lynn Jungwirth, the Watershed Center; Bill Wilkinson, BBW Associates
FSC-US has developed a forest certification standard that provides requirements for the regional application of FSC’s Principles and Criteria relating to forest management. This standard was written with the agreement that it would not apply to USFS and BLM lands, given their unique roles regarding values, public use, and national ownership. FSC US could develop a modification of the existing standard for certification of these lands through a transparent, stakeholder balanced, and consensus seeking approach.
The question being addressed by the Exploratory Committee is whether FSC US should implement a process to develop a standard that would provide access for USFS and BLM to FSC certification, and if so, what would the conditions and requirements for certification include. (Note that even if they apply, it is not certain that USFS or BLM forest managers would be successful in their application for FSC certification.)
Please take a few minutes to respond to these key questions below.