To achieve its mission and vision, FSC developed a set of 10 principles and 70 criteria that apply to FSC-certified forests around the world. To ensure that the Principles and Criteria are conformed with consistently, FSC developed international generic indicators.
As forests are in countries and regions with diverse environmental, economic, and social conditions, the international generic indicators are adapted to national, regional, or sub-national contexts to ultimately produce the FSC Forest Stewardship Standards. Forestry operations access FSC forest management certification in countries and regions with the help of FSC Forest Stewardship Standard.
In 2021, FSC released eight new national standards to promote responsible forestry in Cuba, New Caledonia, Belgium, Colombia, Uruguay, Sri-Lanka, Mexico & Kenya. The Russian* and Chinese forest stewardship standards were revised to reflect local requirements and objectives. Many more are in the pipeline for 2022.
*Currently, due to the ongoing conflict, FSC Russia does not exist and no FSC-certified material or controlled wood from the country is permitted.