Under both of the internationally recognised sustainable forest management certification standards, there is a requirement to identify areas under our management that may have high conservation value, and to ensure they are managed to maintain their special values.
The Forest Stewardship Standard, in particular, provides a comprehensive set of guidelines, and defines high conservation value areas as places that possess one or more attributes including:
- significant species diversity or high concentrations of threatened species
- significant landscape-level ecosystems and mosaics
- rare, threatened or endangered ecosystems and habitats
- critical ecosystem services
- forest areas fundamental to meeting basic needs of local communities
- forest areas critical to local communities’ traditional identity.
We have identified several areas across the forests we manage that meet one or more of these criteria.