Events


Thursday, 01 January 2009
FSC's 5th General Assembly

Celebration and Collective Decision Making Among Our Global Membership


FSC’s international membership convened in Cape Town, South Africa from November 1-7 for a decidedly productive 5th General Assembly, a triennial gathering of members that is one of the defining emblems of the Forest Stewardship Council. With a focus on finding solutions, we collectively charted the course for strengthening the FSC.

This year’s Assembly brought together over 350 delegates—environmental groups, forestland managers, forest product manufacturers, labor organizations, Indigenous peoples, community interests, and others—from six continents during a time of unparalleled FSC system growth and the challenges and opportunities that come with it. The United States represented the largest national contingent at the conference with 25 participants across our economic, environmental and social chambers.

As in past assemblies, the 2008 event was a six-day affair, including two days of side meetings, a two-day Forest Conference and two days of official business. A remarkable undercurrent that received significant cross-chamber recognition was the need for system integrity enhancements, including improved monitoring of certifying bodies and controversial certificates, and greater uniformity and scrutiny in the application of Controlled Wood standards. There was also broad recognition of the need for governance reform, including the proper role of National Initiatives and improvements to the dispute resolution process. While the Assembly afforded participants many important avenues for education and information exchange, the heart of the event was the consideration, negotiation, and passage or rejection of motions introduced by FSC’s multi-stakeholder membership.

FSC Motions: the heart of democratic governance

One of the central mechanisms to ensure that FSC remains a member-driven, consensus-based and transparent organization is the capacity for any member (along with two seconders) to submit proposed statutory and policy changes and directives to the FSC. These motions have global perspectives and implication, and are designed to both identify new opportunities and address challenges in the FSC system. To be approved, proposed motions must receive majority vote from each of the three FSC chambers (social, environmental, and economic), after which they are submitted to the FSC international Board of Directors for formal passage and assimilation into policy statements and application. There were 30 motions approved at this year’s General Assembly.

For those not able to attend, FSC-US succeeded in securing over 80% of U.S.-members’ voting power through proxy. FSC-US staff and board members were particularly active in several debates at this year’s Assembly. These included: four governance motions, a climate change and forest carbon motion, two motions related to Controlled Wood, and a motion requiring truth-in-advertising by FSC accredited certifying bodies. Much of the final language of successful motions was crafted during the Assembly and was of the product of intensive individual chamber consideration and cross-chamber negotiations.

A full description of all motions can be found on the FSC website, www.fsc.org. The following are some highlights of motions passed at the 5th General Assembly.

Role of National Initiatives: FSC International and individual National Initiatives will negotiate contracts that define their respective responsibilities and apportioning of system revenue. Up to eight regional councils of National Initiatives will be created to identify and manage strategic concerns and investment priorities.

Membership: International members will be recruited and managed by National Initiatives in the countries they reside. A new category of non-voting Supporters was created to allow for engagement and support by a broader group of stakeholders.

Forest Carbon: FSC will explore the possibilities to establish real, measurable verifiable emissions reductions, based on forest protection and improved management, and identify how FSC certified management practices can maintain and/or increase forest carbon sequestration. An amendment to the motion recognizes the risks of forest conversion and degradation as well as violation of indigenous people’s rights when developing forest based carbon projects and asks FSC to explore the role that FSC Principles and criteria, governance, accreditation, policy development and forest certification can play in frameworks to mitigate climate change by maintaining and/or increasing carbon stocks.

Accreditation and Auditing of Certifying Bodies: FSC will strengthen the quality control and performance monitoring of Certifying Bodies by Accreditation Services International (ASI) including standardized training programs, increased frequency of announced and unannounced audits on Certifying Bodies that have received a high number of Corrective Action Requests, and implementation of a uniform and transparent policy for suspension of non-compliant Certifying Bodies.

Several motions were also passed that carry significant international significance yet might have lesser impact in the US. Two examples are:

Inclusion of Labor in FSC: This motion requires all certificate holders (FM and COC), in every country, to comply with core ILO conventions. Its intentions are to ensure that all FSC certified operations uphold fundamental labor rights. We expect this motion to effect operations in Asia, Africa and South America, but to have little direct effect here in the US. Although the US is not a signatory of all ILO conventions, the core labor issues in ILO conventions are covered in US law. We do anticipate indirect marketing benefits to accrue to US suppliers from eliminating unsafe and unfair working conditions from FSC supply chains across the globe.

Controlled Wood: Two motions were passed that include new measures to “ensure transparency in the process of risk assessments and their public availability, whilst maintaining supply chain confidentiality” and to develop an “immediate monitoring, evaluation, and reporting system is put in place to review the implementation of the currently valid Controlled Wood system.” In the US we see the implementation of the Controlled Wood standard as successful in eliminating unwanted sources in FSC labeled products and providing incentive to increase FSC-certified fiber content in mixed products. However, there has been some incipient concern over the effectiveness of the Controlled Wood standard including an alleged case of fraudulent claims at the international level. We very much support a robust system that ensures credible claims that all wood in FSC-mixed products comes from acceptable sources.

FSC-US is actively engaged in ensuring that all motions with direct implications to US stakeholders are implemented appropriately at both the national and international level. This engagement includes formal and informal consultation with diverse US interests as well as FSC International. Additional information on these efforts, and opportunities for involvement, will be communicated via the FSC-US website (www.fscus.org) and email communiqués.