The UK Forestry Standard and Guidelines series

The Forestry Commission series of forestry Guidelines began in 1988 with the publication of the Forests and Water Guidelines. The Water Guidelines was the first in a total of eight that were published between 1988 and 1998, covering various aspects of sustainable forest management including landscape, soil and nature conservation, archaeology and recreation. While the Water Guidelines has been revised and reprinted as recently as 2003, the others have become either out of date or out of print.

The publication of The UK Forest Standard in 1998 (second edition in 2004), and the advent of independent certification through the UK Woodland Assurance Standard in 2000 (second edition in 2006) substantially altered the context for the Guidelines in their current format. It was decided that a fundamental review of the purpose and scope of the whole series was needed. This included a consultation exercise in 2004 which confirmed that a wide range of different stakeholders valued the Guidelines. It was therefore agreed to retain the series but to revise and re-publish the documents at a UK level – with the support of the Forestry Commission (in England, Scotland and Wales) and the Forest Service in Northern Ireland.

The revisions aim to clarify and strengthen the relationship between the Guidelines series and The UK Forestry Standard and to improve the consistency of approach. The new UK Forestry Standard will continue to define governments' requirements for sustainable forest management and will link directly to the Guidelines for greater detail on the key areas below:

• Forests and Landscape
• Forests and Historic Environment
• Forests and Biodiversity
• Forests and Soil
• Forests and Climate Change
• Forests and People
• Forests and Water

A Guidelines Management Group has been set up to oversee the project, with representatives from the Forestry Commission in England, Scotland and Wales and the Forest Service in Northern Ireland. Individual Working Groups have been set up to work on the individual revisions making use of specialists and consultants as appropriate.

The UK Forestry Standard and Guidelines revision is an inclusive exercise. Public consultation on the UK Forestry Standard and all the Guidelines except for the UKFS Water Guidelines closed on 30 October 2009. A summary of comments made is available below:

Summary report on the public consultation

The UKFS Water Guidelines are currently available for consultation until Friday 9 April 2010. The consultation briefing and questions and the draft guidelines are available below:

Consultation briefing and questions

Consultation briefing and questions (Word version)

Forests and Water Guidelines

If you would like to discuss the revisions, please contact Richard Howe.

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