Congratulations, you are part of the solution!
FSC is the world's fastest growing forest certification scheme, driven by increasing market demand for responsible products. More and more businesses and consumers prefer products from well managed forests. FSC provides the much needed connection between the forest and the end user, ensuring that products with the FSC label uphold the highest social and environmental benefits.
FSC National Standards revision processes were initiated in 2015 in the Congo Basin, in the Republic of CONGO, Cameroon and Gabon.
The revised national forest management standards of Cameroon and Gabon apply to all types and scales of forests (FMUs, Communal Forests, Community Forests) including forest plantations. These standards do not apply to non-timber forest products. The revision process has mainly consisted in adapting the FSC Principles and Criteria version 5 and including important indicators related to Intact Forest Landscapes, timber monitoring, ILO fundamental conventions, promotion of women, as well as strengthening 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 takes place according to the following publication schedule:
CAMEROON
Cameroon's revised national standard was approved and published by FSC on September 28, 2020. It came into force on December 29, 2020.
REPUBLIC OF CONGO
As for the Republic of Congo, its standard was approved and published on October 6, 2020 and came into force on January 6, 2021.
GABONESE REPUBLIC
Launched within the framework of the policy of generalizing the certification of responsible forest management, the national standard FSC Gabon was approved and published on December 15, 2020 and its entry into force is scheduled for 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 welcomes the completion of its draft standards and encourages forest concessions to comply with them for the valuation of 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 Gabon: Mr. Emmanuel Bayani, Chairman of the FSC standard development group: e.bayani1968@gmail.com / scoutgabon@yahoo.fr
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FSC chain of custody certification provides credible confirmation for products with environmentally and socially responsible sources to access the market.
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