Identifying the interestgroups

Inspectors assess forest management on the basis of established criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management.

This assessment is done in three ways: at the office (evaluation reports), during field visits and during interviews with managers, employees, residents and organizations involved.

In the FSC terminology, the  latter is called "stakeholder consultation". Whoever applies for certification,  will submit a list of names of interest groups before the actual certifying process takes place. Thus an estimate of how many conversations and meetings are needed, can be made.

The stakeholder consultations can be done through interviews or public meetings. The organization of these meetings can sometimes take a long time. Yet there is great importance attached to it, because during these meetings, the locals can give their reaction to the forest management and the standard used..