As announced in the middle of the year, FSC ANZ is undertaking an unscheduled revision of its National Risk Assessment (NRA) to ensure the FSC Controlled Wood system continues to be properly implemented in Australia. The NRA is used by FSC Controlled Wood/Chain of Custody certificate holders to control uncertified materials so that those materials may be mixed with FSC-certified materials and used in products that carry the FSC Mix label.  

The revision was prompted by the uplisting of the east coast koala and the southern and central greater glider from vulnerable to endangered under the EPBC Act and a suite of recommendations provided by FSC’s assurance services provider, Assurance Services International (ASI), following an investigation in Australia.  

For more background information about the revision process, click here.  

To assist in the revision of the NRA, the FSC ANZ Board established an NRA Advisory Working Group (NRA AWG) tasked with proposing a draft of the revised NRA to the Board. Through constructive and careful deliberations, the NRA AWG recently reached consensus around a draft version of the revised NRA.  

FSC ANZ now invites all interested stakeholders to participate and provide their input to the proposed revisions to help ensure the revisions proposed by the NRA AWG are understandable, auditable, and reasonable.  

The consultation runs from 21 December to 5 March.  

FSC ANZ is planning to host a webinar to explain the changes proposed to the NRA and answer questions from stakeholders. Keep an eye out for an invitation to this webinar, which will likely occur in late January.  

Following the public consultation, the NRA AWG will refine the draft further before submitting it to the FSC ANZ Board, which, subsequent to the Board’s approval, will submit the draft to FSC International for final approval and publication. In accordance with FSC requirements, there will be a transition period to the new version of the NRA. Further details will follow when the NRA is published.  

The members of the NRA AWG are:  

  • Economic chamber: Steven Fox, Midway 

  • Environmental chamber: Sean Cadman, individual member 

  • Social chamber: Linda Fienberg, individual member 

For any questions, please contact Stefan Jensen, FSC ANZ Policy and Standards Manager: s.jensen@au.fsc.org.