News Forestry
FSC Canada hosts public consultation on new eligibility criteria for Chain of Custody Group Certification

Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Canada is currently revising its Group Chain of Custody eligibility criteria to help provide small to medium-sized enterprises better access to FSC certification.

The organization shared in a press statement that in accordance with the ‘Development of National Group Chain of Custody Eligibility Criteria Procedure’ (FSC-PRO-40-001 V1.1), FSC Canada is hosting a public consultation to ensure that these revisions are reflective of a broad range of perspectives.

FSC Canada further explains that its group certification was developed to help smaller enterprises achieve FSC certification by joining together to become certified under one certificate and as a result, reducing the costs and administrative requirements of certification.

FSC’s current Standard for Chain of Custody of Multiple Sites (FSC-STD-40-003 V2.1) considers small enterprises eligible to be included in a group certificate if they have:

1. No more than 15 employees (full-time equivalent); OR
2. No more than 25 employees (full-time equivalent) and a maximum total annual turnover of U.S. $1,000,000.

However, notes FSC Canada, there are large variations in economic development between countries that FSC operates in. So, FSC allows for the criteria to be revised and adapted to fit local realities.

Proposed changes include:

1. Increasing the total annual forest products turnover to $5 million CAD.
2. Updating the “OR” statement to allow businesses with less than 25 employees to be included in the group eligibility criteria.
3. The $5 million in turnover should also be tied to adjustments by FSC to the AAF for COC certificate holders, i.e., when the AAF goes up by a certain percentage, the maximum turnover criterion would be increased by the same percentage.

Stakeholders can participate in the public consultation process by:

1. Reviewing the proposed revisions and rationale: The draft document outlining the proposed revisions and research can be found below on the FSC Canada website.
2. Providing feedback: Feedback can be submitted through the dedicated online feedback form.