From discord to accord: a decade's work building consensus on sustainable forest management

摘要

The recent release of the third edition of the United Kingdom Woodland Assurance Standard (UKWAS) provides an opportunity to reflect on the development of sustainable forest management certification in the UK. The revised UKWAS standard has been endorsed by PEFC and FSC's approval is imminent. None of this seems very remarkable and it is certainly nothing very controversial receiving only scant mention in the trade media. And it is precisely the technical, rather than political, nature of today's UKWAS process that makes it interesting for it is a far cry from the highly charged atmosphere within which the first edition of the UKWAS standard was developed.