The IGI are therefore now ready to be used by Standard Development Groups (SDG) in their work to develop or transfer national or sub-regional Forest Stewardship Standards to the FSC Principles and Criteria (version 5-1). At the same time, FSC-accredited Certification Bodies can use the IGI in developing Interim National Standards for countries where no national SDG exists.
As part of the approval of the IGI, the Board underlined that Standard Development Groups have the option to adopt, adapt, drop or add indicators. The Board instructed the FSC international secretariat to go through the Instructions to Standard Developers to ensure necessary flexibility in their implementation, and to finalize the transfer procedure and the scale, intensity and risk guideline in a way that allows SDGs to develop Forest Stewardship Standards with local relevance and applicability, and to take operations of different sizes and types into consideration.
The Board’s decision reads as follows:
“The Board approves, with consensus, the International Generic Indicators (IGI) as the starting point for developing national standards. The IGI are mandatory for interim national standards (‘certification body standards’).
Standard Development Groups shall consider the Instructions to Standard Developers, and all the IGI, with the option to adopt, adapt, drop or add indicators as appropriate and relevant nationally.
Certification bodies developing interim national standards shall consider the Instructions to Standard Developers, and all the IGI, with the option to adopt or adapt indicators as appropriate and relevant nationally.
The IGI related documents and the transfer procedure will be aligned with this decision.
The Board will closely monitor the work of the FSC international secretariat to ensure the smooth process of transferring existing National Standards to the new FSC Principles and Criteria (version 5-1).
The scale, intensity & risk guidelines will be further developed to ensure the IGI are relevant and applicable to smallholders and communities, varying sizes of forest operations, and different ownership structures. Approaches to certification for smallholders, Indigenous Peoples and communities will be further developed through the work to implement motions 11 and 83.”