The United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) has accredited the first validation/verification bodies for Woodland Carbon Code (WCC) projects.
The WCC was launched in July 2011 to help give credibility to woodland creation schemes which are specifically aimed at carbon sequestration. The first two bodies to be granted UKAS accreditation under ISO 14065 to audit woodland creation schemes for the WCC are Scottish Food Quality Certification Ltd (SFQC) and SGS UK Ltd.
Welcoming the announcement of the accreditations, Tim Rollinson, Director-General of the Forestry Commission, said, “One of the most popular ways of compensating for carbon emissions is to plant trees, which capture or ‘sequester’ carbon, taking it out of the atmosphere.
However, the validity of some previous schemes has been questioned: are the right varieties of trees being planted? How long before they are cut down? Or do they even exist at all? The detailedrequirements of the WCC, supported by rigorous assessments which come with UKAS accreditation of the assessors, or auditors, will help to deliver confidence in the integrity and effectiveness of woodland creation projects in the UK which make claims about carbon capture.”
The WCC requires full details of the types and areas of woodland to be created at a particular location, and about how they will be managed. It specifies how the amount of carbon sequestered should be predicted and measured, as well as making allowances for events such as fire or disease.
There is a particular emphasis on “additionality”, a concept which seeks to ensure that the trees would not just have been planted in any event. Developers of woodland creation projects for certification against the WCC are able to register with the Forestry Commission. The details will be publicly available so that carbon sequestration claims can be verified. The validation/verification bodies will check that the claims made by the woodland creation project proposers comply with the WCC.
Janet Gascoigne, Accreditation Manager, Development at UKAS said. “The granting of the first two accreditations to this new standard is a key step towards both business and the public being able to recognise, understand and trust what carbon capturing schemes can do for them. It also provides another example of the effectiveness of accreditation as an alternative to regulation, not just in the environmental field but across a wide variety of industry sectors.”
As the UK’s National Accreditation Body, UKAS’s role within the scheme is to accredit validation/verification bodies to the requirements of the standard ISO 14065. The scheme is now open to other applicant validation/verification bodies following the successful completion of the pilot project with SGS and SFQC.
For details on how to become an accredited verification body please visit the UKAS website http://www.ukas.com/about-accreditation/apply-for-accreditation/Apply_for_Accreditation.asp
For further information on UKAS and accredited organisations please visit ww.ukas.com
For more information on the WCC please visit www.forestry.gov.uk/carboncode
UKAS
The United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) is the sole national body recognised by government
to assess evaluating organisations to international standards. UKAS operates under a Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) with the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), and is a non-profit-
distributing company limited by guarantee. UKAS accreditation involves assessment and verification (against
international standards) of certification, inspection, testing and calibration services. UKAS employs over 300
assessors and technical experts, and has over 40 years’ experience. For further information about UKAS visit:
www.ukas.com
Woodland Carbon Code
- Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the most common of the greenhouse gases causing the atmospheric warmin
- which is changing Earth’s climate. Growing trees sequester, or absorb, CO 2 from the atmosphere, and use
- carbon atoms to form wood while emitting oxygen back to the atmosphere.
- Projects can only be validated/verified under the Woodland Carbon Code if they meet its rigorous requirements for sound forest management, sustainability and carbon ‘accounting’. It uses independent validation/verification companies approved, or accredited, by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) to audit project proposals.
- ‘Registration’ of a proposed planting project under the Code is the first step towards ‘validation’ and ‘verification’. Once registered, the proposal is audited against the standards set down by the Code, and if it satisfies the requirements it is ‘validated’ under the Code. Projects must subsequently be ‘verified’ at least every 10 years to check that targets are being met.
- Certification provides evidence of the quality of the proposal, not only in carbon terms, but also in sustainable forest management terms, and is critical for attracting investors. Woodland established under the Code must attain high standards of forest management in line with the UK Forestry Standard (UKFS) and Climate Change Guidelines for forestry. The UKFS sets out the government vision of sustainable forest management, and is the ‘yardstick’ used by all four governments in the UK when assessing applications for forestry grants, tree felling licences and approvals of forest design plans. About 13 per cent of the UK’s land area is covered by woodland, which is more than double the woodland cover of 100 years ago. The European Union average is 37 per cent.
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