Andy Sharkey trained as an ecologist before working in urban forests in the 1980s across the Leeds and Bradford area as part of a Countryside and Forestry Team. He undertook practical management in the cities woods and parks. Andy retrained as a forester in the early 1990s and then went on to work for the Woodland Trust. Andy stayed there for 30 years, working in a variety of roles and becoming their Head of Estate. This estate covers more than 30,000ha in the UK. His last role for the trust saw him responsible for the Trust’s FSC certificate. His career has developed further into sustainable forestry, and his experience has been involved in woods and forests in small urban sites, community woodlands, ancient woodland, commercial plantations through to landscape scale projects across the UK. Andy has been a member of the UKWAS steering group for a number of years and prior to taking up his post with FSC he was an UKWAS board member and member of the UKWAS 5 drafting group.
In his role Andy will be focused on working to see the revised National Forest Standard - UKWAS 5 – through its final approval stages and looks forward to this revision being formally adopted during 2024 and then working with Forest Management Certificate Holders and Certification Bodies to ensure a smooth transition to the new standard.