Tuesday, 01 September 2015
Make your views on UK forest management known
© FSC UK / C. DaviesEvery five years, the standard against which forest management in the UK is assessed for FSC certification, the UK Woodland Assurance Standard or UKWAS, is revised. The revision process takes into account not only FSC’s international requirements, reflected in our Principles and Criteria, but also the views of the many other stakeholders in UK forests.
Following initial stakeholder comments, an intensive period of work has resulted in a first draft of a new version of UKWAS. This version is intended to be simpler, clearer and more user friendly, while maintaining the same high standards of forest management.
Now is your opportunity to read the new draft and make your thoughts known. The main public consultation on the draft standard will run through September and October. If you have an interest in UK forests, we encourage you to read the standard and let us know what you think is good and what you think is bad, where you think the standard goes too far and where you think it doesn’t go far enough. Over the coming weeks we’ll be suggesting key topics in the standard that might interest you, but any and all of the text is open for discussion. Of course, any feedback has to balanced against that from other stakeholders, but it is vitally important that you make your views known.
Click here to download a consultation paper, which includes a link to the consultation draft, details of how the draft was prepared and some key questions for stakeholders. Any responses should be sent to ukwas@confor.org.uk by 30 October 2015.
If there is anything you would like to discuss directly with FSC UK, please feel free to contact Owen Davies, our Forest Standards Manager, at owen@fsc-uk.org.