High Conservation Value Forests (HCVF)
The concept of High Conservation Value Forests (HCVF) was first developed by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) in 1999 as their 9th principle. The FSC defined HCVF as forests of outstanding and critical importance due to their environmental, socio-economic, cultural, biodiversity and landscape value.
HCVFs could be old-growth forests in Siberia, habitats of threatened orangutans in Southeast Asia, or the sacred burial grounds of a North American first nations people.
Full Definition of HCVF
HCV1. Forest areas containing globally, regionally or nationally significant concentrations of biodiversity values (e.g. endemism, endangered species, refugia). e.g. presence of several globally threatened bird species together in a Kenyan montane forest
HCV2. Forest areas containing globally, regionally or nationally significant large landscape level forests, contained within, or containing the management unit, where viable populations of most if not all naturally occurring species exist in natural patterns of distribution and abundance. e.g. a large tract of Mesoamerican lowland rainforest with healthy populations of jaguars, tapirs, harpy eagles and caiman and most smaller species
HCV3. Forest areas that are in or contain rare, threatened or endangered ecosystems. e.g. patches of a regionally rare class of freshwater swamp forest in an Australian coastal district
HCV4. Forest areas that provide basic services of nature in critical situations (e.g. watershed protection, erosion control). e.g. forest on steep slopes with avalanche risk above a town in the European Alps
HCV5. Forest areas fundamental to meeting basic needs of local communities (e.g. subsistence, health). e.g. key hunting or foraging areas for communities living at subsistence level in a Cambodian lowland forest mosaic
HCV6. Forest areas critical to local communities’ traditional cultural identity (areas of cultural, ecological, economic or religious significance identified in cooperation with such local communities). e.g. sacred burial grounds within a forest management area in Canada
Who Can Use the HCVF Concept?
The concept was originally defined as a tool to assist forest certification but has gained but is increasingly being used in purchasing policies, investment safeguard policies and in government land-use planning processes. The Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) has also incorporated HCVF in its principles & criteria.
The HCVF concept is useful in several ways to different user groups:
a. Forest managers to meet standards related to HCVF
Forestmanagers can carry out evaluations of their forest areas to determine whether any of the defined HCVs are present within their FMU, so that they can integrate them into their overall forest management planning and activities. This is a requirement of FSC certification and may also be demanded by customers, donors or investors.
b. Certifiers assessing HCVF
The defined national HCVs, together with management guidance, should form the HCVF element of national forest management certification standards. When no national standard exists, certification auditors will be required to develop ‘interim standards’ against which to assess forest management.
c. Landscape planners trying to prioritise different land-uses
Based on information that is already held or is being collated, the defined national HCVs can be used to draw up landscape-level plans and maps to show actual or potential HCVF. Such maps could then be used to inform and prioritise land-use planning decisions and conservation planning and land-use advocacy.
d. Purchasers implementing precautionary purchasing policies
Purchasers implementing HCVF policies can utilise landscape-level information about the presence of HCVs, or use the nationally defined sets of HCVs to also undertake evaluations for the presence of HCVs in specific FMUs, or in setting precautionary purchasing policies. Many purchasers and retailers have complex supply chains and so will normally need either maps of HCVFs or possibly clear guidelines (rather than maps or guidelines of areas that potentially contain HCVs) that are recognised by a wide range of stakeholders.
e. Investors and donors
Investors and donors are increasingly concerned to provide safeguards to ensure that investments or donations do not promote socially or environmentally irresponsible actions from potential recipients. This may take the form of either screening potential recipients or introducing requirements that the recipients fulfil their social and environmental responsibilities. By concentrating on the most critical environmental and social values, the HCVF framework provides a potential mechanism for ensuring that donors and investors fulfil their own environmental and social policies.
HCVF Practical Support
HCVF Toolkit
ProForest has developed an HCVF Toolkit as a framework to define HCVF at a national level and as a guide for forest managers in the absence of a ratified FSC national standard.
Download the Global HCVF Toolkit.
National Interpretations
The national interpretations of HCVF toolkit provides a practical methodology to be used on a routine basis to identify High Conservation Value Forests. They also provide guidance on what types of management and monitoring are necessary if such a forest has been identified. Currently National HCV Interpretations are available for Bolivia, Bulgaria, Canada, Equador, Ghana, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Romania, Russia, and Vietnam. You can download the documents here...
See also, examples of HCVF assessments
Landscape Sourcebook
This sourcebook provides guidance on how to use the HCVF concept at the landscape scale. Download the Sourcebook for Landscape Analysis of HCVF (Version 1)
HCVF Brochure: The Concept in Theory and Practice (WWF-January 2007)
This brochure will interest anyone seeking solutions for forest use that look at not only the economic value of forests but also the critical social and ecosystem values and services which forests provide to people and nature. Readers will be able to learn about the concept of HCVF and how it has been applied throughout the world. They will also be able to see how the concept has been used in many different settings and by a wide range of stakehlder groups. Download the brochure...
