Standards & schemes
FSC International
In brief
The Forest Stewardship Council is a forest certification scheme owner founded in 1993. It sets standards for responsible forest management (the Principles & Criteria, FSC-STD-01-001 V5-3) and for chain of custody (FSC-STD-40-004 V3-1), which tracks certified material from forest to finished product — but FSC does not issue certificates itself. That is done by independent, accredited certification bodies, whose work is overseen by Assurance Services International, creating a three-layer accountability structure. Certified operations may use the FSC trademark under licence, with three label types — FSC 100%, FSC Mix and FSC Recycled — that carry materially different meanings for sourcing claims. Certificates run five years with annual surveillance audits, forest management audit reports are public, and certificates can be verified in FSC's public registry (search.fsc.org). Certification supports a sourcing claim only within the certified scope and chain-of-custody model; it does not by itself prove outcomes in a given forest or validate wording beyond that scope.
Conditional relationships
A relationship does not mean that the standard proves or validates every use of a claim.
Recognition & legal context
No reviewed law references are published.
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