As the pandemic continues to impact our operations, we are prioritizing the health of both certificate holders and FSC auditors as we maintain our mission of responsible forest management.
To do this, FSC is extending and adding to its COVID-19 derogations and interpretations. Key updates include:
- All COVID-19 derogations and interpretations extended and now valid through December 31, 2021. The updated documents can be found here.
- New option for forest management re-evaluation audit. General auditing derogation FSC-DER-2020-001 has been amended by adding one additional option for handling forest management re-evaluation audits. Updated derogation FSC-DER-2020-can be found here.
- Amended derogation for remote CoC audits. Amendments include permitting Stage II audits (for certificate holders with a ‘medium’ risk assessment) to be done either as surveillance audits, or, where on-site surveillance audits are not possible due to health/travel restrictions, undertake Stage II/surveillance audits as permitted for surveillance audits in DER-2020-001. Removing the requirement for CBs to do quarterly reporting to FSC of the Certificate holders using the derogation. FSC-DER-2020-005 has been updated and can be downloaded here.