Jon Kirkpatrick, Chair of the FSC UK Board of Trustees, opened the meeting, and introduced Victoria from Roots and Shoots, who outlined their educational and environmental aims for the local community. Roots and Shoots provide accessible and positive vocational and educational opportunities for young Londoners with an Education, Health and Care Plan, you can find out more about their work at https://www.rootsandshoots.org.uk/.
FSC UK is governed by its trustees, who are also known as the FSC UK Board of Directors. The trustees serve a three-year term and are assigned one of the three chambers to show the balance of the interests of the governing board of FSC UK. Some of the FSC UK trustees are also FSC Members.
Hubertus Van Hensbergen introduced himself and explained his background in the forestry industry, his past experience as an FSC auditor, and his role of trustee for the previous three years. He was unanimously re-elected by the members present. Owen Davies, an FSC Member in the environmental chamber, gave an overview of his background working for FSC UK as Forest Standards Manager over the past ten years and the perspective he can bring to the trustee role. Maggie Fitzherbert outlined her history as a deforestation-free supply chain specialist, along with her background working for the Soil Association, and alongside FSC, offering to bring broad due diligence expertise to the Board. Both Owen and Maggie were unanimously elected by the members present.
FSC UK’s Treasurer, Maura Poole, outlined key points in the financial report, including increased income, especially from promotional licence holders, increased staff capacity and work to support the responsible management of small woods. Tallulah Chapman, FSC UK Communications Manager, asked that Members note the 2023-2024 Annual Review, which is now available in both digital and print formats.
Rosie Teasdale, FSC UK Executive Director, presented the priorities for 2024-2027 and a selection of highlights from and since the previous financial year. Although there are no major changes to the previous priorities, they have been refined to give more emphasis to some aspects. For example, the priority to promote the value of forests has been expanded to explicitly reference the products, ecosystem services and social benefits that forests provide. Stakeholder engagement has been brought to the forefront, and the priorities now refer to improving forest management in the UK rather than focusing on forest management standards. Rosie also provided an update on the work to develop FSC UK's vision for UK forests and introduced a short exercise to gather attendees views on topics for inclusion.
Hubertus van Hensbergen introduced FSC UK’s new Impact Investment Fund. The Fund has been developed to utilise surplus funds to meet our charitable objectives. It is open to anyone meeting the eligibility criteria, however, applications must come from organisations, rather than from individuals.
Applicants can request funding from £5,000 to £50,000 to develop projects which fall under one of FSC UK’s three strategic priorities:
- Sourcing: Promoting/establishing woodland management for ecosystem services
- Demand: Fostering an increase in the use of responsibly sourced timber
- Benefits of Well-Managed Forests: Making the link between demand and source more explicit.
The deadline for applications is the 17 November 2024. The reason for the short timeframe is to enable evaluation and due diligence of applications decision making at the January Board meeting, and, ideally, some payments before the end of the financial year. It is anticipated that there will be future funding rounds on an annual basis.
More information and an application form can be found at https://uk.fsc.org/impact-investment-fund.
FSC UK Trustee, Mike Bekin, facilitated a panel discussion with Robin Nicholson, of Buckland Timber, Adonis Charalambous from Lendlease Europe and Andrew Waugh, Waugh Thistleton Architects. After a short presentation by each panellist, Mike led the discussion on the challenges and opportunities for greater uptake of certified timber in construction. The need for FSC UK to target contractors and homebuilders was identified and to ensure that sustainable timber sourcing was embedded within company procurement policies. Issues regarding the procurement of FSC-certified plasterboard and the timing of FSC Project Certification (the final assessment coming too late to support promotion by the contractor) were also raised. The following Q and A covered topics such as the availability of FSC-certified timber; concerns regarding fire risk of timber and toxicity of glues used in engineered timber products; and the need for stronger legislation in the UK. There was a general view that the climate emergency would, inevitably, lead to increased use of timber in construction and a hope that the use of certified timber would become standard practice.
For more information of the governance of FSC UK click here, or to learn more about FSC Membership and how you could help to shape FSC strategy in the UK and beyond click here.