The Standard

Getting Certified

The UK Woodland Assurance Standard is currently the central component of the forest certification programmes operated in the UK by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and the Programme for Endorsement of Forest Certification Programmes (PEFC). Please refer to these organisations for information and advice about accredited certification bodies (also referred to as ‘certification authorities’ or ‘certifiers’) able to carry out an independent third party evaluation against the UKWAS standard.

The following advice on the introduction of the revised Second Edition of the UK Woodland Assurance Standard is provided for users of both these schemes:

Forest Stewardship Council
(Information provided by FSC UK)

The Second Edition of the UK Woodland Assurance Standard was formally accredited by FSC and incorporated into a revised FSC UK scheme with effect from November 1st 2006.

From this date, existing FSC certificate holders in the UK had one year to comply with the revised requirements of the standard whilst all new certificates have been issued for certifications assessed against the requirements of the revised standard.

An Amended Version of the Second Edition was introduced in November 2008 with immediate effect for new certifications. Existing certificate holders should ensure that they are in compliance with the amended requirements by their next audit.

See the FSC UK website for further information.

PEFC Certification Scheme for Sustainable Forest Management
(Information provided by PEFC UK)

The Second Edition of the UK Woodland Assurance Standard was incorporated into the PEFC Certification Scheme for Sustainable Forest Management with effect from November 1st 2006. The Amended Version has not been incorporated so new certifications will continue to be assessed against the original version of the Second Edition until further notice.

See the PEFC UK website for further information.