Your scope of certification defines which FSC standards and policies that apply to your company. We are happy to help if you are unsure of whether you are covered by a specific document.
Note: In this section, you will find international FSC standards and policies applying specifically to forest management certification. Scroll down to find a link to documents that apply to all FSC certificates. These are equally important for your certification.
Further documents
There are some official documents apply to all FSC certificate holders, including FM and CoC certificates. View these documents.
FSC P&C update
The global FSC Principles and Criteria (P&C) are generally seen as "the fundamental law" of FSC certification, since they lay down the fundamental definition of responsible forest management. The P&C are currently in a stage of transition.
Whilst version 4 is currently still in force, a version 5 has been adopted. The phase-in of Version 5 is pending completion of the FSC International Generic Indicators (IGI) and the transfer of national forest management standards to the new international P&C.
The IGI are a set of indicators that will be used for assessing and certifying forests in regions and countries where no locally adapted FSC standards exist. Until the adoption of the IGI, certification in such countries is done against interim FSC standards developed by the individual certification bodies (CBs). The main reason for adopting generic indicators is the need for standardisation, reducing the variability seen amongst CB-developed standards applicable within some countries.
Read more about the transition process on FSC's website
For more information on the International Generic Indicators, go to FSC's IGI website