25 Jan 2011, papernet news - The international Forest Stewardship Council, FSC, granted its unqualified approval to Finland’s redrafted FSC standard on 21 January. The new FSC standard can be adopted, once a three-month transitional period has passed.

Common ground on Finland’s national FSC standard was attained after lengthy negotiations between the three chambers of FSC Finland and various stakeholder groups. The meeting of the Finnish FSC Association approved the standard in November last year.

International FSC practice stipulates that the now approved English-language standard is the official version, on which practical interpretations will be based. A Finnish FSC standard working group will inspect the approved English-language version to verify its correspondence with the Finnish-language version during the three-month transitional period before Finnish documentation is disseminated in the field to guide the practical work. The PEFC certification scheme, which is the most widely utilized system internationally, is the predominant forest certification system in Finland. From the perspective of the Finnish forest industry, it is good that the readiness to apply both systems is now in place in Finland.