FSC reflected in scientific and professional literature

Forest Stewardship Council
worst cases of mismanagement, there are no minimum standards defined by FSC, nor are the
certification bodies contractually obliged to control that the working conditions and the environmental
awareness are on a responsible level. While it has been argued that chain of custody
ecological and social issues are not within FSC's primary mission of forestry management,
the ethical case for treating this has been made. Moreover, there is also a convincing
argument that FSC's brand credibility is at risk to a 'Nike' style expose of dreadful environmental
and/or working conditions in factories manufacturing products which carry FSC chain
of custody certificates. As a result, the FSC General Assembly in 2005 passed an amended
motion on the subject as follows:
“FSC is requested to carry out a feasibility study on options for incorporating compliance
with ILO conventions in the requirements for chain of custody certificate holders, fully evaluating
economic and operational impacts and market up-take. Consideration should also
be given to implications for and conditions affecting small family and community chain of
custody certificate holders in developing countries”.
The results of this study are expected to be published in late 2008.
1.3.7 Expectations FSC does not promise to meet
FSC’s goal is to define and to promote responsible forest management, but not directly to correct
national legal regulations, or to prohibit degradation of forests or deforestation.
While FSC cannot directly enforce national regulations on land use rights, the requirement for
FSC certification in some cases has empowered communities to insist on the acknowledgement
of their rights (see chapter 2.3).
The FSC International Center and many National Initiatives are frequently receiving two types
of questions, which are definitely outside the mandate of FSC, and which are also reflect that
the scope of FSC certification is often misunderstood:
1 The physical quality of FSC certified timber and timber products: FSC’s logo guarantees
the quality of the forest management, but not of the physical qualities of the wood products.
Complaints received from time to time are indicating that the consumers expect
much more than the guarantee for good forest management: “…the six rolls of wallpaper
with your certificate I purchased for my decorators to put up for me. After all the painting
they started to put it up and firstly noticed it varied in shade so we checked to see if all the
rolls came from the same batch No, which they did. …” “I invested a lot of money in a
very beautiful spade for my garden. But after using it only for a short while, the brass palm
broke. I will never again…”.
2 Guarantees for financial investment: Investment companies in the forest area are often
promoting their products, investment certificates, with the information, that their forests
and plantations are managed according to the FSC standard (frequent cases are related
to Central American teak plantations). But the FSC certificate cannot and will not give any
indication for the final turnover of the plantation or for the interest rate earned on the investment
certificate. FSC certification does not cover non-forest management activities
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