Jeanette Clarke- Researcher and Forestry Standards Specialist
The Soil Association Certification (SA-Cert) had been contracted by the Forestry Stewardship Council to develop FSC Interim National Standards (INS) for FSC certification purposes in Zimbabwe. Interim National standards are developed where no national Standard Development Group (SDG) is in place. The INS will form the basis for the FSC Forest Management certification auditing and certification until a National Standard is developed for the country. The FSC Forest Management Standard comprises 10 Principles covering social, environmental, and economic aspects of sustainable forestry. Forestry Standards Specialists Vanessa Linforth and Jeanette Clarke will be leading the processes to develop the INS for Zimbabwe. We are beginning with a stakeholder mapping exercise. Please get in touch with Jeanette by email at forests17@icloud.com if you or your organization are interested in participating in the standard development process and can represent social, environmental, or economic interest groups in the sector. Registered stakeholders will be invited to attend an online webinar to launch the consultation on the first draft of the standard in the coming month.
Vanessa Linforth (R.H.S) with the INS Ethiopia team
About FSC Certification
FSC certification ensures that products come from well-managed forests that provide environmental, social, and economic benefits. Forest owners and managers may want to become FSC certified to demonstrate that they manage their forests responsibly. Along the supply chain, FSC certification can provide benefits such as access to new markets. Their goal is to protect natural resources by promoting environmentally sustainable, socially beneficial, and economically viable management of the world’s forests with the objective of helping to protect animal habitats, indigenous people’s rights and communities, workers’ rights, and areas of significant environmental and cultural importance.
