The Iwokrama International Centre for Rain Forest Conservation and Development (Iwokrama) has retained its Forest Stewardship Council™ (FSC™) Certification for Forest Management following the annual surveillance audit in October 2023.
Iwokrama said in a press release on January 12th that the Certificate for Forest Management was last renewed in October of 2022, confirming that the Iwokrama Forest has maintained its certification uninterrupted since October 2016 (the Iwokrama received initial certification in 2008).
Iwokrama said that the FSC™ certification is the highest international accolade that Forest Managers can receive, and is a testament to the Centre’s application of international social, ecological and environmental best practices. Iwokrama’s forest management procedures and policies, the release noted, were rigorously measured against the Interim National Standard for Guyana (FSC-STD-GUY-01-2020) which includes 10 principles, 70 criteria and 213 indicators. Key to the adherence to FSC™ guidelines is that forest managers must follow all national rules, laws and guidelines including the GFC’s comprehensive Codes of Practice. The assessment team evaluated all elements of Iwokrama’s operations applicable to the standard to determine compliance against national and international benchmarks. Non-compliances are categorized as “observations”, “minor corrective actions” or “major corrective actions”.