What does a standard look like?

A standard has a certain hierarchical structure.
goal: Where do we want to go, what (forest) development do we want?

• principle: what do we want?
• criterion: What needs to happen?
• Indicator: How can we measure it?
• standard: What do we think is  an allowable value?
• verifier: Where do we find the data, what are the sources?

The structure is a tree structure. Each principle has multiple criteria, each criterion has several indicators, etc. This means that for the assessment of forest management and chain of custody a lot of information must be collected.


This is done by inspectors during field visits, consultations of documentation and interviews with management, employees and inland communities. FSC has set up 10 international principles and criteria for good forest management, to which standards and verifiers must be added at national level indicators.
There are also general FSC principles and criteria for the management of the supply chain. These are currently being revised. Mid-2004, the new regulations will be placed on the website of FSC International.

FSC international

 PDF- Hierarchical framework for the formulation of sustainable forest management standards         (Tropenbos International Document)
 PDF- FSC principles and general criteria for good forest
 PDF-  FSC general principles and criteria for supply chain
 PDF- Standard of Guyana (Guyana National Initiative for Forest Certification)
 PDF- Skal International Forestry Standards (SKAL)