The revised national forest management standards of Cameroon and Gabon apply to all types and sizes of forests (FMUs, Communal Forests, Community Forests) including forest plantations. These standards do not apply to non-timber forest products. The revision process mainly consisted of adapting the FSC Principles and Criteria version 5 and including important indicators related to Intact Forest Landscapes, timber tracking, International Labour Organization (ILO) fundamental conventions, the promotion of women, as well as the strengthening of indicators related to workers' rights, rights of indigenous peoples and local communities, among others.
This process began with the establishment of Standards Development Groups (SDG) in each of the countries involved. The approval and publication of the revised standards of the different countries happened as follows:
CAMEROON
Cameroon's revised national standard was approved and published by FSC on September 28, 2020. Its implementation became effective on December 29, 2020.
REPUBLIC OF CONGO
As for the Republic of Congo, its standard was approved and published on October 6, 2020 and its implentaton became effective on January 6, 2021.
GABONESE REPUBLIC
Launched within the framework of the policy of generalizing the certification of responsible forest management, the national FSC standard for Gabon was approved and published on December 15, 2020 and its implementation became effective on March 15, 2021.
It is important to note that these new national standards have also been simplified and better adapted to the specific context of each country to facilitate not only their use by forest concession managers but also understanding by auditors. These standards have also been aligned with the legality requirements of the VPA-FLEGT agreements for the countries where these agreements have been signed (Cameroon and the Republic of Congo).
FSC is happy with the completion of these national standards and encourages forest concessions managers to comply with them in order to achieve added value for their forest products on the national and international markets.
FSC would particularly like to thank its various partners involved in promoting responsible forest management in the Congo Basin and more specifically the members and experts of the FSC Standards Development Groups in the countries concerned for their availability during the long period of revision of national FSC standards.
If you have any questions about the new standards, please contact:
For Cameroon: Professor Roger Ngoufo, Chair of the FSC standard development group: ngoufocew08@yahoo.fr
For the Republic of Congo: Inès Gady Strarov Cabare Mvoukani, Chair of the FSC standard development group: inesgady@yahoo.fr
For the Republic of Gabon: Mr. Emmanuel Bayani, Chairman of the FSC standard development group: e.bayani1968@gmail.com / scoutgabon@yahoo.fr