Milan Reska
Forest Management Certification
FSC forest management certification confirms that the forest is being managed in a way that preserves biological diversity and benefits the lives of local people and workers, while ensuring it sustains economic viability.
Principles, criteria & indicators
There are ten principles that any forest operation must adhere to before it can receive FSC forest management certification. These principles cover a broad range of issues, from maintaining high conservation values to community relations and workers’ rights, as well as monitoring the environmental and social impacts of the forest management.
FSC also provides a number of criteria relating to each principle to provide practical ways of working out whether they are being followed.
Our principles have been developed to be applicable worldwide and relevant to all kinds of forest ecosystems, as well as a wide range of cultural, political and legal settings.
The two relevant documents below are available to download in the document centre:
FSC-STD-01-001 V5-2 FSC Principles and Criteria for Forest Stewardship are designed to serve as a common starting point for developing National Forest Stewardship Standards.
FSC-STD-60-004-20 V2-0 International Generic Indicators.
FSC National Forest Stewardship Standard
FSC's Principles and Criteria set out the global requirements for responsible forest management. Chamber-balanced standard development groups (SDG) adapt the International Generic Indicators at the regional or national level to reflect the diverse legal, social and geographical conditions of forests in different parts of the world.
The following relevant document is available in the document centre:
FSC-STD-60-002 Structure and Content of National Forest Stewardship Standards.
In Ukraine, FSC national forest stewardship standard’s development phase has been carried out in 2015-2019.
The draft of FSC national forest stewardship standard for Ukraine was prepared by the working group on development and implementation of national forest certification standards for Ukraine. Experts with experience in forest certification took part in the drafting of FSC national forest stewardship standard.
The working group consists of 3 sections with equal rights (environmental, economic and social). It is a voluntary association of representatives of non-governmental organizations, timber companies, permanent forest users, representing a wide range of social, economic, and environmental interests in ensuring forest management on the basis of sustainable development through an open consultation process.
The "Regulation on the working group on development and implementation of national forest certification standards for Ukraine" is available at
Regulation on the working group
The participants list of the working group is available from
Participants list of the working group
The formation of FSC national forest stewardship standard was preceded by drafting of its 4 versions, project field testing, and two periods of public consultations. In particular, the working group and experts prepared:
- version 1-0 of the draft standard, on which public consultations took place, which lasted from April 18, 2016 to June 18, 2016;
- version 2-0 of the draft standard based on the results of the first period of public consultations, which was tested in course of field testing at forestry enterprises of Ukraine;
- version 3-0 of the draft standard, which takes into account the results of its field testing and on which public consultations were held from March 3, 2017 to May 5, 2017;
- version 4-0 of the draft standard, approved by the working group as final version in May 2018 and submitted to the Performance and Standards Unit of FSC International Center in December 2018.
FSC national forest stewardship standard for Ukraine was approved by the FSC International Center Policy and Standards Committee on July 15, 2019. The standard came into force on March 30, 2020. In September 2021, the transition period to the standard has ended.
Currently, the original English version of the FSC national forest stewardship standard for Ukraine is available at https://fsc.org/en/document-centre/documents/resource/428
The translation of FSC national forest stewardship standard for Ukraine presented on the same page is unofficial. In any situation, the English version has priority over the translated one.
FSC-STD-UKR-01-2019 V 1-0 FSC national forest stewardship standard for Ukraine
To facilitate the implementation of FSC national forest stewardship standard the following resources have been developed:
- "Guide to practical implementation of FSC® national forest stewardship standard for Ukraine"
The mentioned handbooks have been recommended for use by the working group on the development and implementation of national forest certification standards for Ukraine (Protocol № 1 dated 21 January 2021 and Protocol № 2 dated 23 March 2021, respectively).
The handbooks are for guidance only and are not official FSC documents.
Controlled wood
Controlled wood is material from acceptable sources that can be mixed with FSC-certified material in products that carry the FSC Mix label. The controlled wood requirements identify five categories of unacceptable sources for wood, which is not allowed to be mixed with FSC-certified material. These are:
- Illegally harvested wood
- Wood harvested in violation of traditional and human rights
- Wood harvested in forests in which high conservation values (HCVs) are threatened by management activities
- Wood harvested in forests being converted to plantations or non-forest use
- Wood from forests in which genetically-modified trees are planted
Controlled wood meets the requirements of the two main FSC controlled wood standards. ·
FSC-STD-40-005 V3-1 FSC Requirements for Sourcing FSC Controlled Wood - This standard directs businesses to avoid sourcing material from unacceptable sources.
FSC-STD-30-010 V2-0 FSC Controlled Wood Standard for Forest Management Enterprises - This standard specifies requirements for forest management enterprises to show that their management practices result in material from acceptable sources.
In Ukraine, a number of companies apply FSC-STD-40-005 V3-1 standard, which defines the requirements they shall meet when having FSC certified supply chains for production and sales of FSC controlled wood and/or FSC Mix products. In order for holders of FSC chain of custody certificates to be able to use controlled wood, they shall prove that it does not fall into unacceptable categories. To do this, a system of measures is used aimed at assessing and mitigating the risk of formation of such categories of wood.
Version 3-1 of FSC-STD-40-005 came into force upon its publication, which necessitated its use by companies in preparation for the certification audit. The transition period to the new version of the controlled wood standard has ended in December 2017.
The translation of FSC-STD-40-005 V3-0 standard "Requirements for sourcing of FSC® controlled wood" presented on this page is unofficial. In any situation, the English version has priority over the translated one.
FSC-STD-40-005 V3-0 Requirements for sourcing of FSC® controlled wood
National risk assessments of controlled wood are developed in order to assess the risk of formation of unacceptable categories of wood from the point of view of their inclusion in the FSC-certified supply chains.
Approval of the version of the FSC-STD-40-005 standard "Requirements for sourcing of FSC® controlled wood" necessitated the development of national risk assessment of controlled wood for Ukraine in accordance with a number of procedures, including FSC-PRO-60-002 V3-0 "Development and approval of FSC national risk assessments".
The following relevant document is available in the document centre:
FSC-PRO-60-002 V3-0 The Development and Approval of FSC® National Risk Assessments
Risk assessment means the identification of those areas of Ukraine that may be a source of unacceptable categories of wood as defined in FSC-STD-40-005 V3-1. In the absence of this kind of a threat or mitigation of risk of the formation of unacceptable categories on the basis of certain control measures, wood acquires the controlled status.
Developing a national risk assessment of controlled wood for Ukraine is important both for FSC-certified companies that intend to implement the requirements of the FSC Controlled Timber Standard and for those organizations willing to confirm the legality of their timber products origin in accordance with EU timber regulation № 995/2010 .
Development of the national risk assessment of controlled wood for Ukraine was carried out by a working group and experts on national risk assessment within each of the controlled wood categories.
The working group consists of 3 sections with equal rights (environmental, economic and social). It is a voluntary association of representatives of timber companies, non-governmental organizations, representing social, economic, and environmental interests in ensuring responsible forest management. The participants list of the working group is available from
Participants list of the working group on NRA CW development for Ukraine
The new National risk assessment of controlled wood for Ukraine has been approved by the FSC IC’s Policy and Standards Committee in December 2017.
In 2022 FSC International in accordance with ADVICE-60-002-01 revised the FSC National Risk Assessment of Controlled Wood for Ukraine.
According to FSC-ADV-40-005-25, organizations that apply the FSC Controlled Wood standard FSC-STD-40-005 should revise their DDS, adapting them to the changed risk designations and control measures.
FSC Ukraine prepared translations of these advice notes.
https://ua.fsc.org/ua-uk/newsfeed/opublikovano-zmini-schodo-fsc-ocinok-rizikiv
Currently, the original English version 2-0 of FSC National risk assessment of controlled wood for Ukraine is available from https://fsc.org/en/document-centre/documents/resource/340
The translated version 1-1 of FSC National risk assessment of controlled wood for Ukraine presented at the same page is unofficial. In any situation, the English version has priority over the translated one.
FSC-NRA-UA V1-1 FSC National risk assessment of controlled wood for Ukraine
Experts have developed "Guidelines for practical implementation of requirements of the controlled wood standard FSC-STD-40-005 V3-1.
Its 3rd edition has been updated and supplemented.
Documents for downloading
FSC-STD-UKR-01-2019 V1-0 FSC національний стандарт системи ведення лісового господарства для України.pdf
Методичні рекомендації щодо практичної реалізації вимог стандарту FSC-STD-40-005 V3-1 (редакція 3).pdf
Document Centre
From policies, to national standards, to controlled wood risk assessments, the most up-to-date versions of documents from our normative framework can be found here in the FSC document centre.