Who creates the national standard?

For each certification scheme is a standard required. The national standard for sustainable forest management is usually made by a group of experts. It may be:

• a subgroup of the national working group ("national standard setting committee")
• or a separate group of (external) experts appointed by the national working group.

Both groups will be discussing the successive versions of the standard with the entire national workgroup and during national workshops. As a final step, the standards are tested in the field. This development process can take a long time. A process of several years is not uncommon.

Having a national standard has a great advantage. The standard used by the certifying institute  is well adapted to the local situation and the interests of the various stakeholders (industry, government, NGOs  and inland communities) are exposed and represented in the standard. The Surinamese Minister of Natural Resources, Mr. Demon, authorized the launch of a national working group at the end of 2002. The group's task is to launch the national process and to formulate standards. The group is not active yet.

In neighboring Guyana, a certification working group is active since 2000.  After several national stakeholder workshops, this group is  converted into an official FSC Initiative: Guyana National Initiative for Forest Certification (GNIFC). The FSC principles are translated into local standard, which is now in the testing phase.
The experiences of the Guyana workgroup can be downloaded from the website of the UNDP / PROFOR.

UNDP-PROFOR National process for certification of timber harvesting in Guyana
PDF- National Standard for Forest Certification Guyana (third version)
PDF- FSC l manual for national Initiatives