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Criteria	Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)	Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI)
Basis for Company Participation	Voluntary	Voluntary
Scope	Focus on all forest types throughout the world.	Primarily focused on large-scale forests in the United States and Canada.
Number of participants	There are 933 Forest Management certificates and 7972 Chain of Custody certificates in 90 countries.	In the United States and Canada, there are 219 program participants.
Total land area	104,223,208 hectares (257,541,155 acres) globally, 38,753,365 hectares (95,761,651 acres) in North America.	57,127,119 third-party certified hectares (141,164,186 acres) in Canada and the U.S.
Oversight	The General Assembly consists of all FSC members who fall into three chambers-economic, social and environmental. The Board of Directors consists of nine individuals with three representing each chamber.	The 15 member Board of Directors manages the standard setting, fiber tracking, labeling and certification process.
Representation	Academic, government, industry and consulting sectors.	Evenly split among SFI program participants, the conservation & environmental community and the broader forestry community.
Development	Set by national and regional standards working groups with representation open to businesses, environmental groups, auditors, individuals and government.	Set by the Board of Directors and implemented by the Resources Committee with with two thirds of representation from academic, government and conservation organizations and the rest from the forest products industry.
Scope	Environmental, silvicultural, social and economic issues.	Environmental, silvicultural, social and economic issues.
Public Input	Subject to public review.	Subject to public review.
Approval	National Board and FSC International Secretariat	Board of Directors
Updating	Every 5 years.	Every 5 years.
Reviewer	FSC Accreditation Unit	ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board (ANAB) or In Canada, the Standards Council of Canada (SCC)
Evaluation Process	Task group audits the applicant's office and audits organizations that have been already evaluated by the applicant.	Auditors application process which includes a on-site and witness assessment process
Approval	An executive committee makes a decision based on task group findings.	The ANAB's independent Accreditation Council
Monitoring	Regularly assessed.	Annually assessed.
Renewal	Every 5 years.	Every 5 years.
Reviewer	Accredited third party auditor.	Accredited third party auditor.
Evaluation Process	Audit team reviews documentation, conducts a field assessment and interviews relevant parties.	Audit team reviews documentation, conducts a field assessment and interviews relevant parties.
Approval	An executive committee decides based on profile and feedback from applicant and two impartial peer reviews.	Audit team grants approval based on resolution of non-compliance issues.
Public Input	Any member of the public can file a dispute if there is a disagreement with the decision or ongoing compliance to the standard.	Any member of the public can file a dispute if there is a disagreement with the decision or ongoing compliance to the standard.
Monitoring	Annual field review.	Option to have a full audit every 5 years or regular assessments over a 5-year period. Annual reviews required for product label users.
Renewal	Every 5 years.	Every 5 years.
Material Tracking	Chain of Custody tracks products from forest through each stage of manufacturing and distribution.	Participants required to have auditable monitoring system to account for all wood flows. Participants can also have Chain of Custody certification to track products from forest through each stage of manufacturing and distribution.
On-Product label	Yes, 3 product labels: 1) FSC pure label for 100% certified product group; 2) FSC mixed label with a minimum threshold of 10% certified and 60% post consumer content; and 3) FSC recycled label for product groups with 100% post consumer content.	Yes, seven product labels are available. 1) a label for primary producers 2) four labels for secondary producers. 3) 100% from a SFI certified forest, and 4) SFI mixed label with xx% content from a SFI certified forest.
Use of non-certified sources in labeled products	Yes, prohibits use of sources that are illegally harvested and derived from a high conservation value forest.	Yes, prohibits use of illegally harvested sources.

Criteria

American Tree Farm Systems

(ATFS)

Canadian Standards Association

(CSA)

Programme for Endorsement of Forest Certification Schemes

(PEFC)

Basis for Company Participation

Voluntary

Scope

Private, non-industrial forests in the United States.

Focus on all forest types in Canada.

PEFC is a mutual recognition body that endorses national systems throughout the world.

Number of participants

88,000 Certified Tree Farmers in 46 states.

There are 29 companies in Canada with 70 forest management certificates. There are 0 companies with 0 Chain of Custody certificates.

PEFC Council has formally endorsed 22 national systems. These cover 1121 forest management certificates and 3123 chain of custody certificates.

Total land area

9.7 million hectares in the U.S. (24 million acres)

80,738,814 hectares (199,509,954 acres) in Canada.

200 million hectares (494 million acres) globally.

Oversight

National operating committee and individual state committees.

A 27 member Board of Directors.

A General Assembly and a Board of Directors consisting of a chairman two vice chairman and between 2 and 10 members.

Representation

Tree farmers and forestry professionals.

Academic, government, industry and consulting sectors.

The General Assembly consists of representatives from the 33 member countries reflecting major interest parties supporting PEFC, geographical distribution of members and a gender balance.

Development

Set by independent standards review panel consisting of academia, environmental organizations, forest industry, forest owners, professional logging community, and government.

Set by a technical committee with representatives from academia, government, industry and general interest groups.

PEFC national governing bodies cooridinate the setting process, which is set by invited parties including forest owners, industry, nongovernmental groups, unions and retailers.

Scope

Environmental and silvicultural issues.

Environmental, silvicultural, social and economic issues.

Public Input

Subject to 60 day public review.

Subject to public review.

The final draft of a system is subject to 60 days public consultation as minimum.

Approval

American Forest Foundation Board of Trustees

Standards Council of Canada.

PEFC Council assesses for purpose of endorsement.

Updating

Every 5 years.

Reviewer

ATFS

Standards Council of Canada.

The relevant national accreditation body which is a member of International Accreditation Forum.

Evaluation Process

Voluntary inspectors subject to education and experience requirements and completion of a national training curriculum.

Task group reviews application and forest management audit.

A task group examines documentation, qualifications of reviewers and dispute resolution procedures.

Approval

ATFS

An executive committee makes a decision based on task group findings.

A separate group decides based on task group findings.

Monitoring

None

Annually assessed.

Renewal

Every 5 years.

Reviewer

Voluntary third-party Inspector

Accredited third party auditor.

Evaluation Process

Inspectors review forest management plan and operations.

Audit team discusses scope of assessment with applicant and conducts in field review.

Endorsed systems require audits that consist of a documentation review and an on-site assessment.

Approval

Approved by Voluntary Inspector.

An executive committee decides based on audit findings and assessment team's activities.

An executive committee makes a decision based on task group findings.

Public Input

No direct public input.

Any member of the public can file a dispute if there is a disagreement with the decision or ongoing compliance to the standard.

External parties are allowed to provide submissions to inform the audit.

Monitoring

No requirements.

Annual field review.

Certificate holders are assessed annually.

Renewal

Every 5 years.

Every 3 years.

Every 5 years.

Material Tracking

None

Chain of Custody tracks products from forest through each stage of manufacturing and distribution.

On-Product label

None

Yes, three product labels: 1) 100% from a certified forest; 2) product line from a certified forest with a minimum of 70% certified; and 3) a product with a minimum 70% certified forest content.

Yes, but a minimum 70% certified content threshold is required for a product to qualify to use the label.

Use of non-certified sources in labeled products

Not applicable

Yes, prohibits use of sources that are illegally harvested.

Yes, but "non-certified" raw material shall not originate from illegally harvested sources.

Source: FCRC