Certification Scope
The scope of certification is a definition central to certification activities. The cost of our services, scope of assessment, timeframes of certification depend on the scope of certification.
The scope of certification for forest management is different from that for chain of custody. For forest management, the scope of certification cumulatively means:
- an area of forest management units (FMUs);
- the number and location of FMUs;
- forest types (boreal / temperate / subtropical / tropical);
- forest management / internal chain of custody with sales of FSC 100% certified roundwood.
The number of forest management units (FMUs) within the scope of the certificate determines the certification scheme of a particular forest management enterprise:
- one or two FMUs within the scope of certification of one forest owner or manager provides for the single certification scheme;
- three or more FMUs managed by one forest owner or manager provides for the multiple-site certification scheme;
- an association of several forest management enterprises (of 3 or more legal entities managing a number of the FMUs (e.g. a union or association of enterprises)) provides for the group certification scheme. At that, grouping is carried out on a contractual or other legal basis between the group manager (group certificate holder) and group members, who specify significant aspects of certification as defined by the normative documents of FSC and Forest certification LLC.
The scope of chain of custody certification cumulatively means:
- a list of chain of custody participants and production sites used in production (storage, processing, labeling and other operations) of FSC product groups;
- a list of the enterprise’s production operations performed in production of FSC product groups;
- a list of FSC product groups the enterprise may realize with FSC claims (FSC 100%, FSC Mix, FSC Recycled, FSC Controlled Wood);
- FSC input categories (FSC certified, FSC controlled, controlled, uncontrolled materials);
- FSC claim control system;
- availability of contractors involved in production of FSC product groups;
- a list of applicable FSC standards the assessment will be carried out against.
The scope of chain of custody certification can include operations with FSC controlled wood, such as (in accordance with FSC-STD-40-005):
- purchasing of FSC controlled wood from FSC certificate holders and the realization of FSC Controlled Wood, or
- verification program (including the risk assessment and the implementation of the verification program) to assign wood received from noncertified suppliers the FSC controlled wood status.
FC may issue a chain of custody certificate to more than one site or one chain of custody participant. The following options are available:
- a chain of custody certificate for one organization (single chain of custody certificate) covering one or more sites as parts of the same chain of custody participant; or several chain of custody participants operating under the eligibility criteria;
- a group chain of custody certificate covering, in its turn, several small enterprises operating as the group chain of custody participants;
- a multi-site chain of custody certificate covering several participating sites (they may be different legal entities).