The new second edition of the UKWAS standard was launched to woodland managers and stakeholders at a ceremony in London on November 1, 2006; at the same time a pledge was made to make the standard more user-friendly for managers of small woodlands.

Since its introduction in 1999 the UKWAS has become an established part of the UK forestry scene and has undoubtedly contributed to raising the standards of woodland management. The second edition was again developed by a multi-stakeholder steering group taking full account of responses to a public consultation. It incorporates various changes reflecting a greater understanding of some complex issues, plus necessary updates and clarifications.

The revision process has involved nearly three years’ hard work by the UKWAS Steering Group and means that the UKWAS will continue to serve a vital role in enabling producers to demonstrate their good credentials to consumers. Not content with having completed the revision, the Steering Group’s priority for 2007 is making the standard more accessible for owners and managers of small woodlands.

At the forefront

The launch of a UK Woodland Assurance Standard in 1999 was a landmark for UK forestry, representing a unique coming together of organisations with an interest in sustainable forestry; it put the UK at the forefront of the global certification movement.

UKWAS is a certification standard rather than a certification scheme; uniquely it provides a single common standard for use within forest certification schemes operating in the UK. The first edition of the standard was used by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and, from 2002, by the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification schemes (PEFC) as the basis for its UK certification programmes. The second edition has now been adopted for use in both these certification programmes and the UKWAS therefore continues to be the recognised certification standard against which to measure the delivery of sustainable forest management in the UK.

Existing FSC certificate holders in the UK have one year to comply with the revised requirements of the UKWAS standard while all new certificates will be issued for certifications assessed against the requirements of the revised standard (see the FSC UK website [www.fsc-uk.org] for further information).

The revised UKWAS standard has been incorporated into the PEFC Certification Scheme for Sustainable Forest Management which is currently undergoing a five-year revision; the revised UKWAS standard will also form part of the new scheme which is expected to be launched early this year (see www.pefc.co.uk for more details).

Seven years on, it is clear that the working group which prepared the original UKWAS produced a first class piece of work. The standard proved to be robust and durable and there were remarkably few points on which further clarification was required by its users. One measure of its success is that the UKWAS process continues to attract global interest, with several delegations of international visitors from as far afield as China having visited the UK to learn about the UKWAS model. UKWAS is seen as an exemplar of best practice.

Around 1.5 million ha of UK woodland and associated land is currently certified as meeting the UKWAS standard; this represents 40% of the UK’s woodland, and includes 70% of its commercial woodland area.

Consensus

So what’s the secret of its success? That can be answered in just one word – consensus. It has achieved a high degree of ‘buy-in’ from all the key economic, environmental, social and government stakeholders. They all took part in developing it, adopting a consensus philosophy combined with mutual respect, rather than simply contributing to its development by others. As a result they now jointly own and manage the standard and, because all decisions are made on the basis of consensus, no-one need fear that their concerns can be overridden.

And, uniquely, it is used by both of the world’s leading forest certification programmes – FSC and PEFC – as their certification standard in the UK. In many countries there are two or more competing standards, which is confusing for all concerned.

At least partly thanks to UKWAS, forestry is no longer a controversial land use in the UK, but enjoys a remarkable degree of public and special-interest support enabling NGOs, businesses and government to make common cause on a range of woodland and timber-related issues, such as promoting sustainably sourced wood as an environmentally friendly, carbon-lean raw material for uses such as construction and energy generation.

For further information, visit www.ukwas.org.uk