FSC forest certification - a hot topic of international concern.

As a new mechanism to promote sustainable forest management and market access for forest products, FSC forest certification has been widely recognized by the international community and has become a necessary condition for forest products to enter environmentally sensitive markets such as Europe and the United States. The international community's focus on forest certification is concentrated in the following aspects.

Promote tropical timber certification. In recent years, there have been increasing boycotts of tropical timber trade or discrimination against tropical timber. Some Central European countries (such as Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom) have adopted government procurement policies and other measures to require that tropical timber included in government procurement lists must be certified timber. The Global Forest Trade Network (GFTN), a global buyers' association, also claims that it will only purchase certified timber and its products. Therefore, given that the world's certified forests are currently mainly concentrated in the temperate or cold temperate zones of the northern hemisphere, promoting forest certification in tropical regions has become one of the important tasks of the international community to promote sustainable global forest management.

Improve the quality and credibility of forest certification audits. The main task of forest certification audits is to collect evidence to assess whether forest management meets the requirements of certification standards. Since sustainable forest management covers many new aspects that traditional forest management has not yet covered, coupled with the complexity of the forest ecosystem itself, certification audits face increasingly severe challenges and require auditors to have higher and higher capabilities. Therefore, strengthening technical supervision of the certification audit process and peer review of audit conclusions, and improving the credibility of certification audits are important tasks for each certification system at present.

Supporting joint certification of smallholders. In recent years, joint certification of smallholders engaged in small-scale, low-intensity forest management has received widespread attention from various certification systems. For example, the PEFC system has made supporting joint certification of smallholders a priority in 2017-2018, and has held a number of joint certification field dialogues and seminars to share experiences and promote the development of innovative joint certification models that are in line with local realities and PEFC international requirements. It has also supported joint certification practices of smallholders in Cambodia, Ghana, Kenya and other countries through project funding. The number of FSC system smallholder joint certification certificates has also increased year by year, accounting for 21% of the total number of FSC forest management certification certificates worldwide.

Advocate for mutual recognition and cooperation between different forest certification systems. If each certification system uses its own label in international trade, it will be difficult for buyers and consumers to determine which label is credible. If different certification systems are allowed to compete with each other, many producers certified by their own certification systems (especially those in developing countries) will face insurmountable difficulties in defending their market position. Faced with such problems, the international community has paid increasing attention to mutual recognition and cooperation between different forest certification systems in recent years, believing that this is one of the feasible solutions to reduce certification costs.

Promote the internationalization and consistency of the core content of forest certification standards. At present, many forest certification standards are not formulated by special standard-setting organizations, but are formulated through the participation of multiple stakeholders, and most certification systems are operated by non-governmental organizations. Therefore, the certification standards of each certification system will be affected by the standard-setting team, and their focus is also different. For example, the Finnish Forest Certification Standard (FFCS) pays special attention to the environmental impact of forest management activities. The Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) in the United States allows operators to have greater freedom in determining forest management policies and plans, and places more emphasis on improving forest productivity, including allowing the use of chemicals to promote tree growth and prevent pests and diseases. At the same time, in terms of certain specific indicator requirements, the forest certification standards of different systems vary greatly. Therefore, it has gradually become a consensus of the international community to continuously revise forest certification standards in accordance with unified specifications. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is committed to promoting global unified forest product production and marketing custody chain certification standards and promoting the internationalization of certification standards.

The above is the forest certification that international friends pay close attention to.