FSC-US Standards Revision Process
May 20, 2009
Dear FSC members and stakeholders:
I wanted to provide you with an update and timeline for the Forest Stewardship Council’s US Forest Management Standard revision process.
The FSC-US Board of Directors met in March to review the draft Standard and stakeholder comments from the first public consultation phase. While it was our intention to approve a next draft (Draft 7) of the Standard for the second phase of public consultation, the Board felt that additional consultation was necessary regarding key components of the Standard. Since then, we have been engaged with economic, environmental and social stakeholders to better understand the nature of their concerns as well as identifying the most appropriate means of addressing these concerns in the Standard.
Regarding next steps, the FSC-US Board will meet in mid-June to review all pending issues and, if they are resolved, will approve the next draft of the Standard. By late June, that version (Draft 7) will begin a second 60-day public consultation phase. At that time, all information -- including Draft 7, comments received on Draft 6.1, and responses to key issues that emerged from those comments -- will be posted on the FSC-US website. We anticipate that the final draft of the Standard will be approved by the FSC-US board and submitted to FSC-International (FSC-IC) and Accreditation Services International (ASI) in September 2009.
FSC-US is also revising Principle 10 (Plantations) of the FSC US Forest Management Standard, as well as developing family forest-specific indicators and guidance. Both will be available for public consultation by late July. Announcements of these releases will be sent to all stakeholders and posted on the FSC-US website (www.fscus.org).
Please do not hesitate to contact Karen Steer, who is coordinating the Standard revision process, with any questions or comments. She can be reached via email at ksteer@fscus.org or by phone at 503-260-8335.
Thank you for working with us to ensure sound forest stewardship!
Best regards,
Corey Brinkema
President
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