Regional Forest Stewardship Standard for Smallholders in India approved

The Regional FSC Forest Stewardship Standard (RFSS) for Smallholders in India has now been approved by FSC. This standard is for the use in plantations by smallholders in India (Management Units smaller than 20 ha) and applies to rough wood and Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs). For more details on the scope, please refer to sections C and E of the standard.

The standard has been written in a simple language and provides realistic and achievable indicators relevant to the circumstances of smallholders in India. Another key feature of the RFSS is that in many cases, a group manager or an external organization (a purchaser or an NGO) can assist the smallholder to achieve conformity with the standard.

The RFSS for India is an adaptation of the approved RFSS for Asia Pacific for Smallholders in India, Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia. Now that the Indian adaptation of the Asia Pacific RFSS for smallholders has been published, it will be pilot tested.

For any queries on the standard, please contact Thesis Budiarto, Policy Manager FSC Asia Pacific: t.budiarto@fsc.org.

The RFSS for smallholders in India (English version) can be consulted in the FSC Document Centre.
https://fsc.org/en/newsfeed/regional-forest-stewardship-standard-for-smallholders-in-india-approved

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