Review of UK Forest Standard launched

17 October 2022

Confor will be consulting with a wide range of Members in coming weeks to ensure a robust response to the draft revision of the UK Forestry Standard (UKFS).

The consultation for the draft revision of the UKFS 2022 has been launched and can be found on the Scottish Forestry website.

As the UKFS is a technical standard, this consultation is targeted at organisations that are familiar with its content and purpose, and not the general public.

The consultation seeks to confirm the themes discussed in the 2021 consultation, which included: forest resilience, climate change, carbon management, biosecurity, waste, forest wide planning and wider land use objectives. The impact of these can be seen in the new draft, with changes to the technical content.

The questions in the this years consultation are:

  1. Do you think that the draft content of the new edition of the UKFS has improved how cross cutting themes, such as those explored in the 2021 consultation, are integrated throughout the Standard?
  2. Do you think that the draft content of the new edition of the UKFS remains applicable in all four countries of the UK?
  3. In your opinion, does the draft content of the new edition of the UKFS achieve the right balance between providing clear and consistent requirements and guidelines and the need for some degree of flexibility to accommodate national, regional and local differences and contexts?
  4. Do you think that the draft content of the new edition of the UKFS strikes a effective balance between the economic, environmental and social principles of sustainable forest management?
  5. Do you think that the draft content of the new edition of the UKFS provides greater clarity than the current version on what is required of forest managers?
  6. Do you have any other comments you would like to make about the draft content of the new edition of UKFS?
  7. Are you aware of any evidence that has been published since 2017 on sustainable forest management, that should be considered when finalising the content of the next edition of the UKFS?

Due to the changes to the technical content we need to have a robust well-evidenced response by the 8 December deadline. The Member reply is being lead by Richard Hunter, please contact him directly at Richard.hunter@confor.org.uk.