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4. Procedures for use of the standard Accreditation Certification authorities shall be accredited to undertake independent woodland management certification using the UK Woodland Assurance Standard by a national or international accreditation authority that operates in accordance with ISO/IEC 17011 2004. Accreditation authorities should normally demonstrate this through membership of the European Co-operation for Accreditation (EA), the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) or the International Social and Environmental Accreditation and Labelling Alliance (ISEAL). Any accreditation authority operating outwith the auspices of these representative bodies shall provide the UKWAS company with evidence of conformance with ISO/IEC 17011 2004. The accreditation authority shall ensure that the certification authority meets all the requirements of ISO/IEC Guides 62 and 65 as well as all the criteria which are explicitly part of the UK Woodland Assurance Standard. The UKWAS company will challenge any use of UKWAS trademarks by certification authorities not accredited in this way. Disputes procedures Certification authorities shall have a formal dispute management procedure which is open to all parties at any time, to deal with non-conformance and challenges (ISO/IEC Guide 62:2.1.4; Guide 65:4.5 and the specific rules of the accreditation authority). This procedure shall be implemented when it has not been possible to resolve challenges regarding a decision made by the certification authority in an assessment against this standard. Information on how a decision was made must be made available by certification authorities on request in a way which does not breach commercial confidentiality. Area specificity The areas to be certified under the UK Woodland Assurance Standard shall be individually identified and delineated woodland management units. The owners/managers of each unit shall have made a formal commitment to meet the requirements of this standard. Peer review As parts of the certification process, auditing reports shall be subject to independent peer review by competent experts. Peer reviewers shall have access to all comments from the stakeholder consultations by the applicant and certification authority together with an assessment of how they have been addressed. Periodic monitoring Certification to the UK Woodland Assurance Standard shall be subject to periodic monitoring and review. Certification is normally valid for up to five years and is subject to periodic surveillance to ensure continued conformance with the standard. Surveillance shall be undertaken at a frequency and sampling intensity appropriate to the scale and intensity of management of the site. This leaves scope for an alternative approach to be considered in relation to small and low intensity managed woodlands. The expectation should be of an annual review (ISO/IEC Guide 65), but an annual site visit may not be mandatory in all cases. Re-assessment shall be carried out at least every five years. Stakeholder consultations Certification to the UK Woodland Assurance Standard shall provide an opportunity for, and take account of, inputs from stakeholders. Responsibility for undertaking consultation lies with the applicant in accordance with the requirements of this standard. The applicant shall invite consultees, through direct communication and public notification, to copy their responses direct to the certification authority. Where this is undertaken as an integral part of a wider consultation, such as by a government department, there would be no requirement to present a copy to the certification authority, provided that the information is available to the public. As part of the evaluation process, each time a certificate is issued or renewed, it shall be the responsibility of certification authorities to assess and verify stakeholder comments using appropriate sampling, independent of the applicant’s own procedure. Feedback shall be provided by the certification authority, on request, to respondents on how their comments have been addressed. Transparency The process of certification to the UK Woodland Assurance Standard is transparent and includes the production of an informative, publicly available summary for each certificate. The summary shall provide information on how and why the certification decision was made, to allow stakeholders to see for themselves what happened. This should include an explanation of how any areas of non-conformity with the requirements of the standard have been addressed to the satisfaction of the certification authority, and a clear statement of any outstanding conditions which need to be addressed. Flexibility in meeting requirements It is recognised that some woodland owners and managers may feel that certain requirements are not appropriate to their situation. Some flexibility to allow local adaptation may therefore be acceptable under the following conditions:
The certification authority carrying out the audit will make a professional judgement as to the acceptability of the flexibility, and may consult appropriate specialists or the UKWAS Steering Group (see section 5: Interpretation and revision of the standard). Timing for full implementation of the requirements relating to woodland structure and layout A special feature of woodland management is its long-term nature. Decisions made in the past have a strong influence on the woodlands of today. Therefore, when assessing conformance with the certification standard, certification authorities will not evaluate woodlands solely on the present structure and layout, but will consider the plans for management in the short, medium and long term. Where present structure and layout fail to meet the requirements, woodland owners/managers will need to demonstrate through management planning documentation, design plans and on-going activities in the woodland that they are taking active measures to achieve conformance with the requirements. They will also need to demonstrate that there is a time frame for achieving full conformance based on sound management principles. Application to different scales of woodland and intensities of operation The level and complexity of management needed to meet the requirements of the certification standard will depend on the size and type of the woodland being audited. In particular, small woodlands or those subject to low intensity management will not be expected to need the same level of documentation or management systems and procedures as are normally used for larger or more intensively managed woodland areas or by management companies. Certification authorities will take account of the size of the woodland and the scale and intensity of management and operations. See the glossary for a detailed definition of Small and / or Low Intensity Managed (SLIM) woodland. Scale of application of the requirements Many of the requirements in the UK Woodland Assurance Standard, particularly those relating to woodland design, woodland operations and conservation, relate to proportions of the overall woodland area. For example, to meet requirement 6.2.1, 15% of the total area must be managed with biodiversity as a major objective. In applying such requirements, an appropriate scale must be decided which allows the woodland owner/manager to achieve the requirement in the way that is best suited to the nature of the woodland. This is particularly important for:
In large blocks of woodland, it is acceptable to meet some requirements by concentrating management in one area provided that:
In holdings under a common management which are physically fragmented it will normally be acceptable for the requirements to be met over the holding as a whole, not in each individual block provided that:
Other cases may arise which are not covered by this guidance. Such cases will be assessed by the certification authorities on a case-by-case basis and, if necessary, referred to the UKWAS Steering Group (refer to paragraph 5 below). Parkland and hedgerow trees Parkland and hedgerow trees may be included in a certificate provided that the owner/manager has a written policy and plans for managing them. |
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