This is a guest article by Llais y Goedwig.
About Llais y Goedwig
Llais y Goedwig was initiated in 2008 by a collective of Community Woodland groups across Wales who realised that by working together their impact, potential to advocate for Community Woodland at all levels and indeed their ‘voice’ would be much greater – hence Llais y Goedwig which literally translated means ‘voice of the woodlands’ was born. It is steered by a volunteer board made up of community woodland group members and supporters who adhere to the original Llais y Goedwig ethos of responding to the needs and direction of its members.
Creating a network of certification-ready woodlands
Llais y Goedwig has been examining the barriers and constraints around small and community woodlands in the UK becoming FSC certified since 2019. Over the last couple of years we carried out research with funding support from FSC UK. It was concluded the reluctance for community woodland groups to become certified centred around capacity (in terms of time and money) together with lack of knowledge and understanding about certification in general. Many community woodland owners do not have staff and obtain all the funds to manage the woodland through grants. Many small woodland owners do not manage their woodlands full-time - they either have jobs or are retired and they are managed on a part-time basis, they also may fund any management activities themselves. And yet collectively small and community woodlands cover a significant area of woodland across the UK.
The cost of certification is high and completely out of reach for this sector and the only way to reduce the certification costs is through a group scheme. Following our research into group schemes in the UK there was only one that would take smaller and community woodlands on board. The others all have control over the management of the woodlands in their schemes and as the idea of a community woodland is that the community has the control it makes it almost impossible for a community woodland to join an existing group scheme.
However, even with a reduction in costs through a group scheme, it may still be unaffordable. But with the potential to add FSC Verified Impact to FSC Forest Management certification, it has opened the door to opportunities that could potentially cover the costs of certification as well as the costs of management and improvements to the woodlands as sponsorship can be sought. This increases the capacity of the woodland owners and managers not just economically but also in terms of time as less time is required to search and apply for grants and more time can be spent on management.
This does not resolve all of the issues that were highlighted in the research, particularly around knowledge/understanding/perceptions and the capacity to deliver all that is required for FSC certification. So, as well as developing our own UK wide small and community woodland FSC group to address this, Llais y Goedwig applied for and were successful in obtaining funding from the FSC UK Impact Investment Fund to work with small woodland owners and community woodland groups to get them 'certification ready'.
This funding is essential and provides the key to start to unlock the door of certification of community and small woodlands not just in Wales but across the UK. It is providing the opportunity to work with partners including the Small Woods Association and to engage also with community and small woodland owners in Scotland, as well as with academic institutions and technical partners to produce tools for monitoring and management of the woodlands.
