At the 67th meeting of the FSC Board of Directors, in November 2014, the revised FSC Procedures for Conducting Controlled Wood Risk Assessments were approved. At the same meeting, the Board requested a pilot test that should focus on one sections entitled Minimum Outcomes for Control Measures, also relevant and included in another document, the standard FSC-STD-40-005.
‘Control measures’ allow organizations wanting to source controlled wood (CW) from areas of ‘specified risk’ a way of mitigating the risk of sourcing unacceptable material, as specified by a risk assessment.
For some kinds of risk, ‘minimum outcomes’ set the thresholds or expectations that should be achieved by the control measures that are implemented to mitigate them. Initially, they were also included in risk assessment requirements for risks related to the rights of indigenous and traditional peoples and the protection of high conservation values, particularly intact forest landscapes. Due to their potential impacts, the Board of Directors decided to test them further.
Interested Certificate holders in Canada, Russia and Brazil were invited and given the opportunity to either conduct a pilot test requiring the implementation of the whole standard for all the certified operations involved, which could result in issuing a temporary certificate, or field test with a possibility to limit the scope and without the possibility to obtain a temporate certificate.
The pilot test will be carried out as a regular certification process, with additional preparatory actions and stakeholder workshops to involve stakeholders in reviewing and, if necessary, revising the requirements for minimum outcomes. The end result will be amendments to the two normative documents that contain the requirements for minimum outcomes for control measures: the tested draft standard FSC-STD-40-005, and FSC National Risk Assessment Framework (FSC-PRO-60-002a), which specifies requirements for risk assessment.
Mercer International’s Celgar pulp mill will implement the draft standard to be evaluated by their certification body. Stakeholders from FSC’s three membership chambers will also be involved to provide input to the process to ensure balanced outcomes. Although efforts were made with FSC Russia and FSC Brazil to conduct pilot tests in these countries as well, this was not possible. A key reason was that companies do not really source CW material from intact forest landscapes in these countries, so the key purpose of the field tests could not be fulfilled. An additional pilot test is planned in Canada, depending on the interest of certificate holders in participating.