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COMPARING THE CSA AND FSC STANDARDS 1 | 2 | 3

Consult the table below for a side by side comparison of the Canadian Standards Association and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative Certification System.

  Canadian Standards Association
CSA - Mississauga, Ont. 		Forest Stewardship Council
FSC - Oaxaca, Mexico
Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) Standard
  • CAN/CSA Z809 (1996)
  • Approved as national standard of Canada by the Standards Council of Canada (SCC).
  • FSC 1995
  • Approved by the FSC Board.
Standards Development Process
  • Multi-stakeholder CSA SFM technical committee, Canada-wide public consultation, input, and review process.
  • Accountable to the SCC.
  • FSC national or regional working groups, public review and input process.
  • Accountable to its own membership base.
Application
  • Canada - Defined Forest Area
  • International - Defined Forest Area
Performance-Based Standard
  • Canada's Canadian Council of Forest Ministers (CCFM) SFM criteria and critical elements set the minimum performance level.
  • Adapted to local conditions through a public participation process.
  • Criteria are consistent with internationally recognized Montreal & Helsinki Process criteria for the sustainable management of boreal and temperate forests.
  • Performance requirements focus on specific measurable indicators that vary across regions and countries, i.e. harvesting methods, chemical use, forest conservation etc.
Key Forest Management Elements of Standard ISO 14001 System Elements
CCFM Criteria
  1. Conservation of biological diversity
  2. 2. Maintenance and enhancement of forest ecosystem condition
  3. Conservation of soil and water resources
  4. Forest ecosystem contributions to global ecological cycles
  5. Multiple benefits to society
  6. Accepting society's responsibility for sustainable development
    These criteria are further refined using 21 critical elements to be adapted to the defined forest area.
10 Guiding Principles
  1. Compliance with laws and FSC Principles
  2. Tenure and use rights and responsibilities
  3. Indigenous people rights
  4. Community relations and workers' rights
  5. Benefits from the forest
  6. Environmental Impact
  7. Management plan
  8. Monitoring and assessment
  9. Maintenance of high conservation value forests
  10. Plantations
Requirements for Compliance with Legislation Includes a commitment to meet or exceed all legislation, regulatory standards, policies, and interpretation requirements. Requires compliance with all legislation, regulations and policies.
Local public input required? Extensive, on-going public process - identifying local values, goals, indicators and objectives. Public consultation may be required based on the scale of the operations. Audit Scope 3rd party audits of the system and performance. 3rd party audits of management planning and performance.

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