Friday, 03 March 2006
Controlled Wood Standard
New Draft for Public Comment
A new draft of the controlled wood standard will be published the week of March 20th, and FSC-US encourages all stakeholders to comment on this latest draft. A number of significant changes incorporated in the draft should greatly improve uptake of the standard. This will be the last scheduled opportunity for public review, as the FSC International Board of Directors is expected to vote on the revised controlled wood and chain-of-custody standards during their June 2006 meeting.
This standard is designed to allow companies to avoid trading in timber that was harvested: illegally; in violation of traditional and civil rights; in forest management units in which global environmental conservation priorities are threatened by management activities; in forest management units being converted from natural and semi-natural forest to plantations or non-forest use; and from forest management units in which genetically modified tress are planted.
Compliance with this standard allows companies to supply FSC controlled wood to chain-of-custody certificate holders, as well as to demonstrate that they are avoiding trade in illegally harvested timber, in support of the international Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) program. It also allows companies to implement their own responsible sourcing policies.
In September 2004, the FSC Board of Directors initially endorsed this new set of controlled wood standards, which include FSC STD 40-005 FSC Standard for Company Evaluation of Controlled Wood, and FSC STD-30-010 FSC Standard for Forest Management Enterprises Supplying Controlled Wood. During 2005, the FSC International Center was mandated to monitor the uptake of and review the controlled wood standards, taking into account experience with practical implementation, and to resolve outstanding issues.
The new draft (1.4) of Version 2.0 FSC STD 40-005 has been developed following consideration of the feedback from a public consultation on discussion paper FSC-DIS-01-007 Review and Revision of FSC Controlled Wood Standards.
FSC-US will send the new draft standards to all members and certificate holders when they become available. Other interested stakeholders may obtain the draft from the FSC International Center website (www.fsc.org) in the “Documents Under Public Consultation” section.