Tuesday, 21 January 2025
FSC US National Risk Assessment Revision Webinar and Survey
In November 2024, FSC International launched the revision of the FSC US Controlled Wood National Risk Assessment (US NRA) published in 2019. FSC Risk Assessments assess the risk of sourcing material from supply areas, such as controlled wood from non-certified forests, and establish mitigation measures to address those identified risks. In 2024, FSC International published the revised FSC-PRO-60-006b FSC Risk Assessment Framework, which now aligns with recently revised FSC policies and the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) requirements (see background info here). Among the main changes to the Risk Assessment Framework are that the number of categories of risk has gone from five to twelve, and the number of indicators has gone from 32 to 64; the majority of the 64 new indicators are comprised of disaggregated original indicators and seven cover new subject matter. The US is one of seventeen countries updating national risk assessments based on the revised FSC Risk Assessment Framework.
To facilitate the revision of the US NRA, FSC International has contracted two US-based consulting firms: Green Value and American Green Consulting Group, LLC. Their work is being done in collaboration with FSC US and according to the timeline below.
To share information on the revision process and discuss key issues, FSC US has organized a webinar in which Shoana Humphries of Green Value and Chris Gibbons of American Green Consulting will share their workplan and preliminary thoughts on the revision process, as well as field questions and suggestions from participants. The webinar will be on Thursday, February 27 at 10:00 PST/1:00 EST. Please register here.
A survey has also been launched to receive input on the US NRA revision process. Please share your thoughts by completing the survey by February 14, 2025.
Timeline for the revision of the FSC US National Risk Assessment
- January 2025: Submit brief report assessing the need to update/revise the 2019 US NRA to FSC International
- July 2025: Submit Draft 1 of revised US NRA for review to FSC International
- August/September 2025: Conduct public consultation on revised Draft 1
- October 2025: Submit Consultation Report & Draft 2 to FSC International for review
- December 2025: Submit Final Draft to FSC International for review
- February 2026: Submit Final revised US NRA to FSC International for approval