High Conservation Value Forest Toolkit for PNG

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HCVF Toolkit

The Papua New Guinea High Conservation Value Forest (HCVF) toolkit was developed through consultative processes and peer reviewing by experts and stakeholders. The HCVF concept was initially developed by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) for use in forest management certification. Within FSC certification, for compliance with Principle 9, forest managers are required to identify any High Conservation Values (HCVs) that occur within their individual forest management units and manage them in order to maintain or enhance the values identified. The key to the concept of HCVFs is the identification and maintenance of High Conservation Values (HCVs). The FSC's definition of HCVs encompasses exceptional or critical ecological attributes, ecosystem services and social functions. The global HCV definitions are listed below, with an example of a Papua New Guinea HCVF for each.