The mission of the FSC is ”To promote environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial, and economically viable management of the world’s forests”, meaning that the FSC certification indicates that the raw materials from the forest have been sourced responsibly, protecting the forest, its people and the economy involved in the process and around the area.

It focuses on three aspects:

Environmentally: it includes the biological diversity, water, soils, ecosystems, and landscapes.

Socially: incorporates the forest workers, indigenous people, local communities, and people who use forests for recreation.

Economically: it covers the owners/managers of the small, medium, and large-sized forests as well as owners/managers of operations where there is a low intensity of timber harvesting. Additionally, it includes forest contractors and timber producers associations by protecting their rights, and resources, among others, and giving them fair opportunities.

If your product comes from a forest, it can be certified. It could be either timber (wood) or non-timber.

There are two different types of Standards: The FSC Forest Management Standard and the FSC Chain of Custody Standard. These are explained below:

1. FSC Forest Management Standard provides an assurance that forest owners and managers are managing their forests responsibly, while preserving the biological diversity and benefitting the lives of local people, ensuring its economical viability.

The following is a summary of the principles that any forest operation must comply with before receiving the FSC Forest management certification:

• Companies should support their workers through established laws* while promoting gender equality, health and safety practices, training, and fair payment of wages.
• Companies should recognize (through engagement) the indigenous people through established laws* by identifying and protecting their rights, resources, lands, and territories. This must be done through Free, Prior, and Informed Consent. Lastly, they will have the right to protect and use their traditional knowledge and be compensated for its utilization.
• Companies must identify the local communities that exist and are affected by management activities, in order to maintain and contribute to their social and economic well-being by recognizing their rights, providing reasonable opportunities for employment and further training. Companies should also implement additional activities through engagement and make an effort to avoid significant negative social, environmental, and economic impacts because of their activities. Additionally, they will have the right to protect and use their traditional knowledge and be compensated for its utilization.
• Companies must identify, produce (or enable the production of) diversified benefits and/or products, based on the range of resources and ecosystem services by keeping it at a level where it can be permanently sustained. When available, the company should use local processing and services.
• Companies shall maintain, conserve and/or restore ecosystem services and environmental values while identifying and implementing actions to prevent negative environmental impacts. Rare and threatened species and their habitats must be protected through conservation and protected areas, ensuring their survival and viability.
• Companies shall have a management plan of their management activities, set policies, and objectives where they describe how they will meet the FSC certification requirements. This plan must include verifiable targets where the objectives can be evaluated. There must be monitoring and evaluation of the environmental and social changes and impacts of the activities carried out by a company. These results must be publicly available, free of charge.
• Companies shall maintain and/or enhance the High Conservation Values by developing effective strategies and actions that implement the precautionary approach. These include species diversity, landscape-level ecosystems, and mosaics, habitats, critical ecosystem services, communities needs, among others.
• Companies’ activities shall be selected and implemented consistent with the company’s economic, environmental and social policies and objectives. Waste materials must be disposed of in an environmentally appropriate manner.

*A company must comply with all local, national, or international applicable laws, regulations, and nationally-ratified international treaties, conventions, and agreements.

2. FSC Chain of Custody Standard provides credible assurance that forest products sold as FSC certified come from well-managed forests, controlled sources, reclaimed materials, or a mixture of these. It facilitates the transparent flow of goods from the forest, to the final customer in an environmentally and socially responsible way.