Newsletter Stories


Tuesday, 23 June 2015
WWF confirms FSC as most rigorous forest certification system

June 23, 2015


WWF has released the third version of the Certification Assessment Tool, which confirms the leadership of Forest Stewardship Council standards, governance, and assurance system. 

The WWF Assessment Tool evaluated FSC, the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC), and the Malaysian Timber Certification Scheme (MTCS) with the following results: 

  • FSC provides the most credible forest certification system at present.
  • The revised FSC standard (P&C v5) has improved considerably compared to P&C v4, particularly on its social criteria.
  • The FSC system is strongest where standards are developed and agreed at a national level. FSC also scores higher than PEFC and MTCS for all credibility aspects, even when standard development is undertaken on an interim basis by FSC accredited certification bodies.
  • The CAT is based on WWF’s conservation objectives, expert opinion,and existing research into the impacts of certification, and uses 160 criteria equally divided between system strength and standard strength. 

You can read the full report here.