UPDATES ON FSC TO WWF NETWORK STAFF 2013-04-26 by Maggis Renstrm, Senior Manager, Forest Certification, WWF International (Not

for external circulation) 1. Adaptation of the MTI Certification Assessment Tool (CAT) for forests. The work on revising our old Forest Certification Assessment Guide (FCAG) through adapting the MTI Certification Assessment Tool (CAT) used for all commodity certification system and standards is going well. There is support from MTI for the revised methodology proposed by the Forest Team. In June the new Forest CAT will be piloted through test assessments of four certification schemes having relevance for wood-based biomass (including FSC and PEFC at an international level) as well as the Malaysian certification scheme MTCS. Funding is secured for this. We hope to be able to have a final assessment of FSC and PEFC (international schemes) as forest management standards during Q3 2013. 2. WWF Meeting with Kim Carstensen, DG FSC Rod Taylor recently met with Kim Carstensen. It has been decided that there will be quarterly virtual meetings between Kim and WWF key people (Rod, George, Maggis + additional person depending on the topic) as WWF is one of the most important stakeholders in FSC. Kim has set up similar quarterly meetings with other important organizations including Greenpeace and Building and Woodworkers International. 3. Short update from the last FSC Board Meeting, 11 13 March 2013 In the first half of September 2014 FSC will organize its 7th General Assembly in Sevilla,Spain. FSC has set up a new Quality Assurance Unit. The objective is to improve the quality in the implementation of FSC certification on the ground. The QAU will focus its work on the complaints mechanism, ASI performance, Monitoring & Evaluation, ISEAL conformity, Training System, and Supply Chain Integrity. APP has sent in a request to the FSC BoD for being accepted to re-associate with FSC. The FSC BoD decided that the process will open in a years time pending independent verification (such as EoF reports) that APP have stopped all unacceptable practices. FSC will not consider a time-line at present. The Boards decisions on the recommendations from the Policy and Standard Committee: 1. Approval of an FSC position on the sale of HCV land; 2. Approval of a formal process to develop, review and revise all normative FSC documents in a consistent way to provide predictability; 3. Approval of the FSC Advice Note on splitting FMUs to separate parts that have been converted post 1994, considering WWFs input. 4. Approval of a rule for the control of co-products allowing companies to grade co-products as low risk for illegality if sourcing is covered by the EUTR, i.e. the wood must have been harvested, processed and sold within the EU27 and company agrees to participate in FSC fiber testing to verify source of origin. This rule is only valid until company risk assessments are phased-out by end of 2014. 5. The BoD decided to postpone the decision about allowing cross-site credit counting in FSC CoC as a result of a pilot with a number of different companies involved. The BoD needed further material on the benefits to be able to take a decision. 6. FSC will open up for the nomination of new PSC members as the term is ending for 5 of the 6 PSC members. The decision of the new members will be taken at BoD meeting in June 2013.

4. Environmental Chamber Meeting in February On February 18-19, 2013 a 2-day FSC Environmental Chamber North meeting was held in Bonn. The first day was a joint meeting with FSC, ASI and Certification Bodies. The discussion focused on how to get more consistent and good outcomes of the certification processes, how improve the FSC complaints mechanisms and how to improve Certification Body stakeholder consultations. The second day was dedicated to discussions between Environmental Chamber members and FSC staff on on-going FSC processes, including the guidelines for identification, management and monitoring of HCVs, the International Generic Indicator Working Group process, the Controlled Wood and the C-o-C Working Group processes. Four WWF persons participated in the meeting (Maggis, Gijs, Nina, Panu). Agendas, notes, presentations are available at https://sites.google.com/a/wwf.panda.org/forestcertification/coming-events/_draft_post# 5. Second FSC Emerging Trends Meeting on certification in Tropical Forests On 16-17 May FSC will host a meeting with 30-40 invited key stakeholders to discuss FSCs strategy for forestry in natural forests in tropical countries. The purpose of the meeting is to provide input to FSC from key stakeholders and experts in tropical forestry to FSCs strategy for increasing the use of certification as a key tool to secure responsible forest management in natural forests in tropical countries. The meeting will provide timely input to FSCs global strategic plan 2014-16, which is being developed. The topics to be covered include: - Overview of current and future trends, including: governance, economy, deforestation, protection, quality of forest management, legality, certification etc. - Situation of certification in natural forests in the tropics (area evolution, type of ownership) - Analysis for barriers to certification in the tropics including social, environmental, markets and governance perspectives. - Discussion on relevant issues for FSC, including Indigenous Peoples rights, weak governance, human rights, labor rights, land rights, land grabbing as well as HCV2 issues. - Identification of major FSC roles in the arena, including advocacy, promotion, marketing, education, certification process implementation. - FSC Safeguards and Tools for working in countries with weak governance. A number of WWF staff will participate, including Gijs, Daniel T, Dito, Jaap, George and Maggis. The meeting is co-initiated and co-funded by WWF. 6. WWF Greenpeace meeting on protection of HCVs and Intact Forest Landscapes (IFLs) On April 24 a small delegation from WWF and Greenpeace met in Amsterdam to discuss a joint project to do a feasibility study on protection of IFLs. The objective of the study is to identify the most valuable and threatened IFLs and evaluated the opportunities for increased protection of these IFL. The project was initiated by WWF. The meeting was very successful and it was decided to develop a joint project outline by the end May. Also other issues were discussed in a very constructive and positive way, including forestry and protection in the Congo Basin and strategic discussions related to APP and APRIL. It was decided that regular contacts between Greenpeace and WWF at the international level on forest related issues was going to be re-established through quarterly conference calls. From WWF Rod Taylor, Anders Lindhe, Jaap van der Waarde and Daniel Tiveau participated.