Revised National Forest Stewardship Standard for The Republic of Congo
The revised FSC National Forest Stewardship Standard (NFSS) for The Republic of Congo applies to specific management units as described in section 2.2 Scope of the standard, operating in natural forest and/or plantations. The NFSS is not applicable to community forests and small and low intensity managed forests.
The revision process of the NFSS of The Republic of Congo started in 2015 and mainly focused on the adaptation to the FSC Principles and Criteria version 5, and the inclusion of important indicators related to Intact Forest Landscapes, wood tracking, indigenous peoples’ and local communities’ rights. This Congolese NFSS has been aligned as well, with the FLEGT legality requirements from the signed European Union Voluntary Partnership Agreement (EU-VPA).
A chamber-balanced standard development group conducted the revision following a multi-stakeholder process, including both virtual and face-to-face consultations. The revised NFSS was passed through field testing and stakeholder involvement to ensure its applicability.
