On December 1, 2015, FSC Canada released Draft 1 of the National Forest Management Standard for consultation. The consultation period ended February 2, 2016, and many engaged stakeholders reviewed and commented on the draft in order to assist in furthering its development. In total, FSC Canada received 65 submissions, providing over 500 pages of comments and greatly appreciates the time and effort taken by stakeholders to assist in this process. For the entire consultation results from Draft 1 please see "Public Summary: Draft One Consultation of FSC Canada’s National Forest Management Standard".
Statistics related to these and other comments received detailed analyses and are being considered by FSC Canada. With input from FSC Canada’s Board of Directors, the 2016 Workplan was revised to identify actions needed to reach our goal of getting to Draft 2, and then eventually to a final Standard.
FSC Canada is busy reviewing input, and where necessary, making changes to indicators. Revisions are needed across the Principles while significant attention will especially be paid to the more complex requirements that received the most comments.
Strategies influencing FSC Canada’s Forest Management Standard can be found here.
For more information, visit the Forest Management Standard Revision page on the FSC Canada website.
Risk-based, Outcome Oriented Approach
FSC Canada is considering how indicators may better focus on intended impacts and exploring efficiencies around requirements that carry low risk.
In the FSC system, risk refers to the likelihood or probability of an event with negative consequences, and also the seriousness of those consequences. FSC Canada is working to identify risks in forest management that carry potential unacceptable negative impacts in a Canadian context. Examples of incorporating risk and an outcome-oriented approach can be seen already throughout the Standard such as in the requirements for species at risk and caribou, small-holders, Aboriginal rights, and conservation areas network. Creating indicators that reflect regional and national contexts is a risk and outcome oriented approach. FSC Canada intends to continue to evaluate how to further this approach.
Staged Release / Step-Wise Approach
Content will be shared as revisions become available leading up to the release of Draft 2 especially in relation to key topics such as requirements for smallholders, High Conservation Value (HCV) Framework, and guidance for FPIC.
Intact Forest Landscapes and Aboriginal Rights
Through the comments on draft 1, it was quite clear that FSC Canada will need include indicators related to Intact Forest Landscape (IFL) requirements in draft 2.
A concurrent message from the Aboriginal Chamber was that the Draft 2 Standard needs to ensure strong and functional requirements for free, prior and informed consent across management activities and landscape-level management planning.
In order to accommodate the perspectives of all members while still ensuring FSC is developing a functional and high quality Standard key learnings and future steps will guide FSC Canadas approach to IFLs and Aboriginal Rights.
In the upcoming months FSC Canada will begin testing the Standard. Draft 2 of FSC Canada’s National Forest Management is expected to be released for public consultation in late October 2016.