The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) has gathered a group of international and national stakeholders in Bucharest (Romania) from 3 to 4 May 2017 to begin the stakeholder engagement process that is to lay the groundwork for a roadmap towards ending the disassociation with the Schweighofer Group (HS).
Among the first tasks of this meeting were to define and configure the Stakeholder Working Group (SWG) that is to act as the core stakeholder advisory group to FSC during the process.
During the two day meeting, FSC has informed the SWG members on FSC standards, policies and procedures as well as the current status of the HS disassociation case in view of obtaining their complete understanding and engagement on the process. This work will include background information on the case, the clarification about the different roles of FSC and the SWG within the process and future workflows expected by all parties.
FSC has presented the attendees with an initial draft of the Conditions Framework which stipulates the conditions that need to be fulfilled by HS and how the fulfillment will be verified in order for FSC to consider ending the disassociation with the company.
Following this first meeting, a consultation draft version of the Conditions Framework will be produced by the SWG and published for stakeholder consultation during a 30 day period, after which the SWG will revise and analyse the comments provided. A further meeting will follow later in the year to discuss this input and revise the Conditions Framework prior to SWG submitting the final proposed version of the document to FSC International. The final version of the FSC Conditions Framework will then be submitted to the FSC Board of Directors for approval.
