In November 2024, FSC International launched the revision of the FSC US Controlled Wood National Risk Assessment (US NRA) published in 2019. FSC Risk Assessments assess the risk of sourcing material from supply areas, such as controlled wood from non-certified forests, and establish mitigation measures to address those identified risks. In 2024, FSC International published the revised FSC-PRO-60-006b FSC Risk Assessment Framework, which now aligns with recently revised FSC policies and the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) requirements (see background info here). Among the main changes to the Risk Assessment Framework are that the number of categories of risk has gone from five to twelve, and the number of indicators has gone from 32 to 64; the majority of the 64 new indicators are comprised of disaggregated original indicators and seven cover new subject matter. The US is one of seventeen countries updating national risk assessments based on the revised FSC Risk Assessment Framework. To facilitate the revision of the US NRA, FSC International has contracted two US-based consulting firms: Green Value and American Green Consulting Group, LLC. Their work is being done in collaboration with FSC US and according to the timeline below.

Ensuring our standards are the best they can be is always a priority for PEFC. As our Standards Revision process gets underway, we are calling on all stakeholders to submit their input and comments on our current PEFC Chain of Custody Standard (PEFC ST 2002:2013) by 3 July 2016. The objective of this revision is to identify the areas where PEFC Chain of Custody could be improved in terms of usability and outcome, and where we need to adapt the standard to better meet today’s stakeholder expectations and market realities. To kick off the process, we have launched a 30 day public consultation to gather your input. We invite all PEFC stakeholders, especially users of the PEFC standards such as certified companies, accreditation and certification bodies and consultants, to submit comments through the PEFC Consultation Tool by 3 July 2016.

Water is one of the most essential resources on our planet, serving multiple roles and millions of people at once. A few of water’s better-known services include providing millions with drinking water, ensuring food security and playing a vital function in the health and sanitation sectors. Beyond these direct connections, water also maintains a critical and complex relationship with biodiversity—an essential component of Earth’s ecosystems. Countless environments rely on the presence of water to remain stable and healthy—and water, in turn, relies on these environments to maintain its own functions and patterns. When access to the resource is altered or diminished, not only are various species and their habitats at greater risk, but the water supply itself faces further threat through droughts, polluted waterways, soil erosion and decreased water quality. The result is a strained environment unable to sustain local habitats and a shrinking water supply—critical for all populations and an urgent issue for the human population, considering less than 1% of the global water supply is actually available for human use.