Intact Forest Landscapes

Canada is home to approximately 368 million hectares of forest, including about 211 million hectares of Intact Forest Landscapes (IFLs) as of January 1, 2017, primarily within the northern boreal region. These forests support rich biodiversity, store significant amounts of carbon, and sustain the cultural practices of Indigenous Peoples who have stewarded these lands for generations.

The revised Forest Stewardship Standard for Canada (FSS), released on July 1, 2026, introduces an option for a landscape-level collaborative approach to develop IFL management strategies. This approach was informed by FSC Canada’s participation in the Motion 23 Pilot, building on nearly a decade of work, and reflects Canada’s ecological and cultural diversity.

In parallel with the release of the revised Standard, FSC has released:

ADV-STD-60-004_02 V1-0 Enhanced HCV 2 management and monitoring of IFLs in Brazil, Canada, Peru, and the Republic of the Congo

This Advice Note introduces interim measures to accelerate implementation of Motion 45/2025, which calls for moving away from fixed thresholds to outcome-based conservation. These interim measures complement (rather than replace) the IFL requirements in the FSS.

INT-STD-60-004_06

Allowing, in circumstances where there are multiple IFLs existing with a Management Unit, aggregation of the overall required core area hectarage in one or a selection of the overlapping IFLs.