Entrepreneurial standards of FSC.

March 28, 2010 by timbercommunity

The purpose is to start a pilot project to develop entrepreneurial standards of FSC.

Initiator of the project is NEPCon (a non-profit organization dealing mainly with certification), ENFE (European Network of Forest Entrepreneurs) and the international FSC. The budget is about 800 000 € and will include pilot projects in 4 different countries (Sweden, Denmark, Bulgaria and Portugal). The goal of this project is to develop a contractor certification under the FSC to facilitate
certification process of small forest owners. The idea is not to develop a new standard but instead start on existing standards by finding a "lowest common denominator ". The idea of the Swedish pilot project is that competition between PEFC and FSC should
avoided and that the total cost of certification should be reduced.The first meeting was held on 3 February 2010 at the Swedish FSC's office in Uppsala.

The meeting resulted in an ad hoc working group consisting of: Kjell-Owe Ahlskog - NEPCon, Martin Lindgren Svea Skog, Mats Ågren - SMEs and Niklas Arvidsson - Svensak PEFC. Working task is to identify approaches and to create a draft project plan to be reported back to the participants at the meeting (reference group).  If conditions exist, they plan to form a more permanent Working Group.