On 18 December 2015, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) published the final version of a long-awaited update to its Controlled Wood standard (FSC-STD-40-005 v.3-0).  You can link to the announcement here, and download a copy of the new standard document here. This update has been in the works for nearly 5 years and the subject of seemingly endless discussion, debate, analysis, and hand-wringing.  Two discussion drafts were released - the first in fall of 2013 and the second in late 2014. ...

Last month we wrote about a troubling and quite public debate that has been brewing in the press and social media recently.  It concerns challenges and concerns  being raised by some Canadian timber companies (in particular, Resolute Forest Products) and involving major international ENGOs, a Quebec government minister, and the president of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).  We are writing again because this issue is important to the whole FSC community - not just those who follow the...

An interesting and rather disturbing drama has been unfolding recently, within the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC®) community in Canada.  Long-standing anxieties concerning the viability and sustainability of FSC certification in the Canadian forest have come into public view in ways that are, at the very least, awkward. We have been watching an embarrassing series of exchanges between and among the key players in forest industry, FSC International, FSC Canada, and even members of the Quebec...

Among those who are following the pending update of the FSC Chain of Custody standard (FSC-STD-40-004 v.3-0 D2), one item has risen to the top of everyone's list.  That item is called Transaction Verification. Transaction Verification exists - officially & currently - in 2 forms: 1) as clause 1.7 in the latest draft of the standard 2) as described in a 20 page Discussion Paper released by FSC-IC last month. It also exists in the extensive (and very expensive) 3-year effort by the FSC-IC...

After nearly three years of work, FSC is about to close the second discussion period on Draft 2 of the latest version of its main Chain of Custody standard (FSC-STD-40-004 v.3-0).  This latest draft was released on August 31, 2015 and MixedWood posted a brief article on it at that time.  Since then, we have examined the draft in more detail; looked over the wealth of supporting documentation; and discussed the subject with our network. We hope that you will be interested in our comments and...

After more than 2 years of hard work, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) released a first discussion draft of its version 3 update to the important Chain of Custody standard late last year. We commented on that draft several times last winter (here, here, & here) and encouraged others to do the same. Today, FSC released another version (FSC-STD-40-004 v.3-0 D2-0) for our review.  Please download a copy and look it over. We promise to examine this latest draft closely, consult with our...