Tuesday, 29 November 2016
Clearer way forward for UKWAS 4

© FC England

The UK Woodland Assurance Standard (UKWAS) is the standard used in FSC forest management certification in the UK, and is in the process of being revised. Following the decision in October by the Policy and Standards Committee (PSC) not to approve the current draft, FSC International has now provided further detailed feedback on those areas where UKWAS 4 does not fully address the FSC Principles and Criteria.

The clarification provided by the Policy and Standards Unit (PSU) states that while the ‘PSC decision emphasises the importance of the FSC normative framework for standard developers which places primacy on the Principles and Criteria and the International Generic Indicators… this should not be construed as a simple demand for an increase in the number of IGIs adopted. Rather, the PSC asks the SDG [Standard Development Group] to reconsider current draft indicators that do not fully address the P&C and to provide clearer justification for decisions made in relation to normative requirements and recommendations.’

The detailed feedback from the PSU identifies the following key issues:

• A need to give greater consideration to FSC guidelines on addressing scale, intensity and risk in forest management, or to provide further justification for the approach currently adopted in UKWAS. The requirements in the draft of UKWAS 4 are intended to be size neutral, whereas FSC recommends that different requirements are applied to lower potential impact operations.
• A need to incorporate explicit references to legislation addressing specific FSC Criteria, rather than relying on a single legal compliance requirement. UKWAS does not explicitly mention some issues included in the Principles and Criteria where these are covered by UK law, for example corruption and payment of living wages.
• A need to restore wording relating to necessary investment or adopt similar wording in the context of Criterion 5.5 (commitment to long-term economic viability). UKWAS 3.1 (the current FSC-approved version) contains a requirement to ‘Aim to secure the necessary investment to maintain the ecological value of the woodland’. After long discussion by the UKWAS Drafting Group, this was removed from the draft of UKWAS 4 and replaced with a requirement for woodland management planning to ‘demonstrate a commitment to long-term economic viability’.
• A need to address the explicit separation of the development and implementation of strategies to maintain and/or enhance high conservation values as required by Criteria 9.2 and 9.3.

Further issues were identified in relation to other FSC Criteria.

In line with this feedback, the UKWAS Steering Group will be asked to consider changes to the draft standard or to provide additional justification for some of their decisions.

‘We welcome this clarity on what are seen to be the outstanding issues in fully addressing the FSC Principles and Criteria in UKWAS,’ says FSC UK Forest Standards Manager Dr Owen Davies. ‘FSC UK has already drafted a set of concrete proposals to address the issues identified by PSU, which will form the basis for our discussions with the UKWAS Steering Group at their meeting in Edinburgh on 2 December.’

Below you will find background explanations of the FSC Principles and Criteria, the International Generic Indicators, and how these influence standard development. If you have any questions, please contact Owen at owen at fsc-uk point org.

FSC Principles & Criteria for Forest Stewardship

© FSC A.C./ Milan ReškaThe FSC Principles & Criteria (P&C) describe the essential elements or rules of environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial and economically viable forest management. There are ten principles setting out this vision and each principle is supported by several criteria that provide a way of judging whether the principle has been met in practice. In many countries, FSC National Forest Stewardship Standards have been developed. These are based on the P&C, and provide locally appropriate indicators for each criterion to show how compliance can be demonstrated in that national situation. National standards are currently being transferred to version 5-2 of the P&C.

International Generic Indicators

© FSC CAAt the request of FSC members, a set of International Generic Indicators (IGIs) has been developed. The IGIs are intended to ensure the consistent application of the P&C across the globe, with the aim of improving and strengthening the credibility of the FSC system. They are the starting point for developing indicators. As such they can, and should, change to reflect national circumstances; however, when developing or transferring standards, it is a normative requirement to take into account the IGIs and the associated Instructions for Standard Developers.

Standard Development & IGIs

© FSC DKStandard Development Groups have the option to adopt, adapt, drop or add indicators. An IGI may be dropped ‘where it is determined to be inapplicable or otherwise non-contributing in measuring conformance to a Criterion in a national or regional context’. An IGI may be considered inapplicable where the indicator addresses a condition that currently does not exist and will likely not exist in the national or regional context for the period of validity of the standard. An IGI may be considered non-contributing where the SDG agrees that leaving out an IGI will allow better overall performance of the standard, while not lowering conformance to any particular Criterion. Justifications for dropping IGIs must be made when submitting standards to FSC International for approval, and ‘shall not conflict with FSC Policies, Standards, Advice Notes or Procedures and shall be supported by a chamber balanced working group’. Justifications will be considered both by internal Policy and Standards Unit staff and by the independent Policy and Standards Committee before a standard is approved.

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