The ‘period of silence’ is the time of the year when wild animals breed. It is prohibited to carry out activities that are a source of noise and disturbance in animal breeding sites, such as fireworks, use of motorized vehicles or sanitary tree cutting. In Ukraine, that period is set from 1 April to 15 June and applies to all forests, whether they are FSC certified or not. FSC must ensure that the period of silence in Ukraine is adhered to in FSC-certified areas.
Thanks to publicly available data, FSC Ukraine found evidence that some FSC certificate holders broke the law and at the same time the FSC standards. FSC escalated this evidence to the relevant certification bodies at the national and international level as well as Assurance Services International. FSC instructed them to investigate these probable breaches, and to take strong actions should the breaches be confirmed. As a result, currently, 10 certificates have been suspended.
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