The proposal to develop the locally relevant forest management standard was submitted by the Namibian Standard Development Group (SDG) to the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) in August 2017.
The SDG is a chamber balanced working group consisting of Namibian nationals which represent the economic, social and environmental interests within Namibia.
The SDG was tasked with the development of the Indicators contained within the FSC NFSS.
The process of developing the NFSS follows guidelines to ensure that the NFSS are a result of an Integration of local expertise with the FSC system which is internationally recognised and takes into consideration the diversity of social and geographical conditions of local forests. These guidelines (may be obtained from the FSC website – https://ic.fsc.org/en/document-center
The first Draft of the NFSS considered comments received from experts, representatives of key interest groups and government officials. The Draft is now open for Public consultation for 60 days (01 February – 02 April 2018).
Comments from the Public may be submitted in English or Afrikaans via the comments form.
Stakeholders may access a copy of the Draft NFSS via FSC Africa or www.ncanamibia.com
Should you require further information on the process followed, the risk assessments utilised or about FSC certification for your farm/ organisation, please contact Ms. Manushka Moodley via m.moodley@fsc.org