On June 28 and 29, FSC Canada held its annual general meeting in Montreal, where nearly 100 members, certificate holders and stakeholders attended to hear about the organization’s recent activities and learn about its upcoming national forest management standard.
FSC Canada’s president, Francois Dufresne, delivered his highlights and successes from 2016 and talked about the future of FSC in Canada, noting that FSC-certified forests in Canada grew by 2.3 million hectares. His report also focused on expansion and collaboration to support the growth of FSC Canada so it can continue to deliver the positive social, environmental and economic impacts expected by its members.
General Assembly update
Al Thorne, from the FSC international Board of Directors, stopped by to provide members with an update on the FSC International General Assembly, FSC’s top decision-making platform, taking place from October 8-13, 2017 in Vancouver. FSC Canada’s board of directors and members also addressed a number of key issues that may impact FSC in Canada in order to help members prepare for the FSC International General Assembly.
Forest management standards forum
The following day and a half was filled with updates and discussion on FSC Canada’s draft National Forest Management Standard. The discussions focused on several key elements of the draft standard that differentiate it from its predecessor. They also served to gauge support on indicators that deal with free, prior and informed consent (FPIC), small and low-intensity forests, intact forest landscapes (IFLs) and Indigenous cultural landscapes (ICLs), and new normative requirements for managing species at risk such as woodland caribou. FSC Canada plans to have the final version of the standard approved by the end of 2017, for implementation in early 2018.