The last time we updated you on the revision of the UK Woodland Assurance Standard – the familiar face of the FSC Forest Stewardship Standard for the UK – was back in October 2021, when we told you about the final opportunity to comment on the evolving draft. That public consultation saw an excellent range and number (51) of responses, and the UKWAS Working Group was kept very busy taking them all into account in the closing round of drafting in early 2022.
Much of the work was tweaking and refining, but there were more challenging issues, too, with conflicting stakeholder views on topics like the use of non-toxic ammunition and the restoration of plantations on ancient woodland sites. Some of the consensus was hard fought, but ultimately the Working Group was able to agree a pre-approval draft.
The draft was then scrutinised by the UKWAS Steering Group. Further concerns were raised about the issue of non-toxic ammunition, specifically small calibre ammunition for grey squirrel control. The Working Group was tasked with revisiting the relevant requirements, and in July agreed a final version which allows the use of small calibre lead ammunition for squirrel control until the end of 2025.
With this national-level approval of the draft, FSC UK can now begin to prepare the standard for submission to FSC International for formal approval as a Forest Stewardship Standard.
“We are very grateful to all of the members of the UKWAS Working Group, especially their chair Peter Wilson, and to the UKWAS company for managing the revision process,” says FSC UK Forest Standards Manager Dr Owen Davies. “Everyone has worked incredibly hard and with great good humour, even in these challenging times in which many of us have never met face to face! My responsibility now is to present their hard work to our colleagues in FSC International and to help the Working Group deal with any approval conditions.”
While we cannot pre-empt the formal approval process, we believe that we are still on course to see UKWAS 5 come into effect in April 2023.
You can learn more about the revision process, access the pre-approval draft of UKWAS 5, and read consultation reports summarising how stakeholder input was taken into account at the UKWAS website.